Clarence Ellis (computer scientist)

Childhood

Clarence "Skip" Ellis (born May 11, 1943, in south Chicago, Illinois) has four brothers and sisters who were all raised by their single mother. At 15, Ellis got a job at a local company to help with the family bills. He worked the graveyard shift, working all night long. His main priority was to prevent break-ins and to watch over, but not touch, the company's new computer. In 1958 computers were very rare to own, so the protection of it was imperative. In Ellis's spare time at the insurance company he began to read the computer manuals that came with the machines. He taught himself the intricacies of the computer and became an expert. The computer used punched cards to record and enter data. One day at work, Ellis single-handedly saved the company by fixing a crisis with the computer. They had run out of punch cards, but with a quick change of some of the settings on the computer, he found a way to make the old punch cards work perfectly. This experience changed his life and threw him into the computer science field.^[1]

High school and college

Throughout high school, Ellis's teachers recommended that he attend summer school programs at the local universities in Chicago. This was his first encounter with college-level students and university life. Ellis's pastor knew that his family could not afford to send him to college, so when he found a scholarship to Beloit College, Ellis was thrilled. He applied for the scholarship and won it. In the fall of 1960, he arrived on the campus of Beloit College, located 100 miles northwest of Chicago. He discovered that he was the only African American on campus, and quickly felt very alone. All of Ellis's classes were much harder than high school, and he felt that everyone seemed smarter and better educated than himself.^[1]

At the beginning of Ellis's junior year, the college had a computer donated to it. He and his chemistry professor were asked to set it up. This single computer was the start of the campus's computer lab. It was a major event in his life because he finally felt like he belonged. Ellis's mother was constantly encouraging him, saying, "Be your own person and follow your talents." His mother's pride in him is what kept him enrolled for those first two years. Having this new computer allowed Ellis to show his talents and to take pride in his education. He would work so long on the computer that some nights he would sleep in the lab.^[1]

Passions

During the period Ellis was in school, the civil rights movement had gained momentum throughout the country. He was especially moved by the speeches and non-violent protests of Dr. Martin Luther King. Ellis traveled to Washington, D.C., to hear Dr. King give his famous I Have a Dream speech. He became deeply passionate about computer science and civil rights from that moment on. He graduated from Beloit College in 1964 with a double major in mathematics and physics. From there Ellis went to graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he graduated with a Ph.D. in computer science in 1969. Ellis was the first African American to attain a Ph.D. in computer science.^[1]

Career

Since working on one of the world's first supercomputers, the ILLIAC IV, at the University of Illinois, Ellis's career has had many high points. He helped to develop the concept of clicking on icons (graphic symbols), instead of typing complicated computer codes. The work done at the Xerox Research labs in Palo Alto, California, became the basic software for the beginnings of Apple Computer.

Ellis's point-and-click concept was also used by Microsoft Windows operating system software, which is now used throughout the world. He worked at AT&T/Bell Labs, IBM, and several large government research facilities. Ellis has taught at MIT, Stanford University, and the University of Texas. He has also taught around the world in places such as Taiwan and Paris. His work in the computer science field has helped to set national software standards to try to make computers more "people friendly". Ellis is currently a professor in computer science at the University of Colorado at Boulder.^[1]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} "Extraordinary People: Dr. Clarence Ellis". How Stuff Works Express. http://express.howstuffworks.com/ep-ellis.htm. 

Persondata
Name	Ellis, Clarence
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Date of birth	1943
Place of birth
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