On December 8, Evelyn Berezin, the American computer scientist who invented the first computerized word processor (or “word processor”: writing software, in short) died at the age of 93. The news was given to the New York Times on December 10 by his nephew, according to which Berezin had discovered months ago that he had lymphoma but had decided not to treat himself.
Berezin is considered a pioneer of information technology: in 1968 she patented a computer for writing texts, the first in history, with the aim of simplifying the work of secretaries who at the time worked with mechanical typewriters. He called that computer “Data Secretary” and the following year he founded the company Redactron Corporation, which took care of the production of the machinery.
The Data Secretary was the size of a small refrigerator, had no screen, and was connected to an IBM keyboard and printer. In the following years, a screen was also added to the computer, and in total Redactron sold about 10 thousand pieces at a price of 8 thousand dollars each. In the mid-1970s, however, Redactron began to have financial problems and Berezin had to sell the company to Burroughs Corporation, remaining president of the Redactron division until 1980. Despite having such an important role in the history of computing, Berezin has remained in the course. a little known figure over the years. In 2010, writer and entrepreneur Gwyn Headley wrote of her: “Without Berezin there would have been no Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, the Internet, word processors, spreadsheets; nothing that has to do, even remotely, with work in the twenty-first century “.
