Velma Huskey

Velma Elizabeth Huskey (née Roeth; October 8, 1917 – January 16, 1991) was a pioneer in early computing and author of several important papers on the history of computing.

Velma Huskey
BornVelma Elizabeth Roeth
(1917-10-08)October 8, 1917
Houston, Ohio, U.S.
DiedJanuary 16, 1991(1991-01-16) (aged 73)
Miami, Florida, U.S.
Resting placeSanta Cruz Memorial Park
36°59′15.5″N 122°01′39″W
Alma materOhio State University (Bachelor)
Subjecthistory of computing
SpouseHarry Huskey

Early life and education

Velma Elizabeth Roeth was born October 8, 1917, in Houston, Ohio. She was the daughter of German-American farmers Frederick William Roeth and Clara Matilda Fessler. She attended Houston High School, where she wrote and edited the school news column published in The Piqua Daily Call.[1] She entered Ohio University in 1937.[2]

After marrying Harry Huskey in 1939, Velma Huskey earned a B.A. in English from Ohio State University in 1942.[3] There she was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa.[4]

Career
Velma Huskey (right) with her husband Harry at an outing to temples in Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh

She lived in Britain for a year after the Second World War.[5] Huskey worked as an information specialist for the National Bureau of Standards from 1948 to 1952.[4] She became a technical writer at the Institute for Numerical Analysis at UCLA. Along with her husband, she was an editor for the IEEE Transactions on Computers. She traveled to the Soviet Union for the 1959 technical delegation in computers, paying her own way while her husband represented the Association for Computing Machinery.[6] In 1967 the Huskeys moved to Santa Cruz, California.[7]

Huskey was a biographer of Ada Lovelace.[8] She studied letters in the Byron and Lovelace collection of the Bodleian Libraries at the University of Oxford during summer visits.[4] Her writings appeared in the IEEE Annals of the History of Computing.[9][10]

Personal life

She married Harry Huskey in 1939 and they had four children, Harry Douglas Jr, Carolyn Louise, Roxanne Louise and Linda Louise. She was a member of the Messiah Lutheran church in Santa Cruz.[5]

Death

Velma E. R. Huskey died January 16, 1991, in Miami, Florida.[11] She was buried at Santa Cruz Memorial Park in Santa Cruz, California.[12]

References
  1. "Houston High School News". The Piqua Daily Call. April 4, 1933. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. "Piqua Girl on Honor Role". The Piqua Daily Call. March 15, 1938. p. 7 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. "Attended Commencement in Columbus". Piqua Daily Call. Piqua, Ohio. June 18, 1942. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  4. Lee, John A. N. (1995). International biographical dictionary of computer pioneers. Chicago: Fitzroy Dearborn. pp. 392–393. ISBN 9781884964473.
  5. "Velma Roeth Huskey (1917-1991) - Find A Grave..." www.findagrave.com. Retrieved October 20, 2021.
  6. Ware, Willis H. (1960). "Soviet Computer Technology--1959" (PDF). Communications of the ACM. 3 (3): 132. doi:10.1145/367149.1047530. S2CID 9708388.
  7. Varcados, Marybeth (September 15, 1983). "Memories, mainly, traveled from Poland with the Huskeys". Santa Cruz Sentinel. p. 16 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. Huskey, Velma R. (September 3, 2004). "Countess of Lovelace". In Reilly, Edwin D. (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Computer Science. Wiley. pp. 468–469. ISBN 978-0-470-09095-4.
  9. Huskey, Harry D.; Huskey, Velma (1980). "Lady Lovelace and Charles Babbage". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 2 (4): 299–329. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1980.10042. S2CID 2640048.
  10. Huskey, Velma R. (1985). "Who Was the Mysterious Countess?". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 7 (1): 58–59. doi:10.1109/MAHC.1985.10008.
  11. "Velma E.R. Huskey". IEEE Annals of the History of Computing. 13 (2): 230. 1991.
  12. "Velma R. Huskey". Santa Cruz Sentinel. January 20, 1991 – via Newspapers.com.
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