An Interview with Watts Humphrey, Part 35: The National Medal of Technology
This interview was provided courtesy of the Computer History Museum.
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The National Medal of Technology
Booch: Let me turn now to the story of
you receiving the Medal of Technology. I think you had the ceremony in 2003,
although you were given the award earlier than that. Can you tell me the story
around that, your meeting at the White House and all that? You're only the
second Medal of Technology technologist I've run across, and I'm always
fascinated by those stories of how it came to be. What an honor to receive
that.
Humphrey:
Well, it certainly was. The award was actually the 2003 award, which I was
given in March of 2005. It was delayed because the President had a whole lot
going on at the time.
Booch: For
the people who are listening to this, you might want to expand upon it, because
you and I know what we're talking about, but there may be generations after us
who may not necessarily know that context.
Humphrey:
Right. Well, it came to me as a real surprise-- and let me back up a little
bit. The National Medal of Technology--and this is true of all of these medals,
by the way--they don't just appear. Somebody has to nominate you, and that's an
enormous job. And Bill Peterson at the SEI, who's
director of the process program, took it on himself to submit the nomination. And
he actually went through the whole cycle twice. The first time, apparently, it
didn't fly, and he went back and did it again. This time it did. The first time
I heard about it, I don't remember who I got a call from. I can look back in my
notebooks, but I got a call from an assistant secretary of commerce.
He called me up and
told me that I wasn't able to tell anybody yet, but I was going to receive the
National Medal of Technology and he wanted to make sure that my calendar would
be clear and it would be in the White House and that sort of thing. Basically,
I was absolutely staggered. The National Medal of Technology is managed out of
the Department of Commerce and they sort of see it as the
They view it as sort
of the
The first ceremony, I
think was in the White House. We met at one of the hotels in downtown
Booch: Who
do you love the most?
Humphrey:
Yeah. So they said, “Well, let us check with the White House.” So they came
back and said, “You can bring them all.”
Booch: Oh,
sweet.
Humphrey:
This is marvelous. So they all came. Actually, one, unfortunately, was in
Booch: Watts,
tell me the date for this again.
Humphrey:
It was in March in 2005. So we arrived back at the Ritz hotel the next morning,
the morning of the award, to get bussed to the White House. And the awardees
all had to be there early, because we were going to get bussed separately, and
then the family was going to get bussed in on their own a little bit later.
So we got bussed over
to the White House about 7:30, 8 o’clock in the morning, fairly early. And as
we were riding over, the gentleman sitting next to me, I started chatting with
him, and it turned out he was in, I believe, biology. I’m not sure if it was biology
or something of that sort. And he was talking about what he had done and it
turned out he had also won the Nobel Prize.
Booch: Oh my.
Humphrey: And so there were a
number of people like that. And I thought wow, I’m in
rather exalted company.
Booch: My recollection is that the
other award winners of your time were Jan Achenbach, Bob Metcalfe who did a
little thing with the Internet as I recall, was he there with you? At least
according to the list he was a 2003 recipient.
Humphrey: Yes, well, I’m sure
he was. I really don’t remember the names of everybody who was there. But there
were a few medal of technology winners, I think only about four. I remember we
talked about it, what they did. The people who I think had come up with the
catalytic converter, and several others. But I don’t remember them. I didn’t
really have a whole lot of discussion with them, but there was quite a
crowd. Most of them were Medal of
Science winners and those were the Nobel Prize winners that I had run into.
Booch: Got it.
Humphrey: It turns out Fred
Brooks and Bob Evans also won the National Medal of Technology for the 360
system, which I learned later. So anyway we arrived over in the White House…
Booch: And by the way, I have that
story of Fred at the White House. Steve Jobs was there at the same time. So we
have a background on that too, which is why I’m fascinated with your story. So
you arrived at the White House.
Humphrey: So we arrived and
they bussed us into the West Wing through sort of a special entrance there, and
then they walked us all in and we went into a special room in the West Wing on
the first floor, and we were to stand there and then in came the president. And
he walked around and greeted each of us and chatted with us and then he left. This
is ahead of the ceremony. And then we waited there and basically all of the
guests and visitors and stuff went into, I think it was the East Room in the
White House which is the East Wing, not the West Wing. And it was the wing
closest to the Treasury. Remember, I talked about visiting my uncle in the
Treasury? It was right there. So yes, we waited there and then finally when
they had the whole thing all set up and the room, they came and called us and
we went in order and a marine band was playing and everybody stood and
applauded. I mean it was hard to keep your cool.
Booch: And your children were in the
audience then, too.
Humphrey: They were all there.
My wife was there. And it was emotional. I mean it was really a very powerful
period. So we all filed in and sat in the front two rows, and then everybody
sat down and waited for a few minutes, and I think there were some comments
made by the Secretary of Commerce, I believe, to greet us and that sort of
thing. And then “Hail to the Chief” and we all stood up. So the president came
in and went up on to the platform and he had, I think, it was a Marine officer
who was handing him the stuff. And so our name would be called. Somebody would
read the award and we would come up and stand beside the president and there
would be a bunch of pictures. And the he’d turn to this Marine officer who would give him the medal with the ribbon and
everything, and he put the ribbon over my neck and then he handed me the
plaque. And we stood and got a picture with the president and then we shook
hands and I went back and sat down.
So we went through
the whole thing. Each of us got a brief discussion. The president, I didn’t say
this, the president started with a brief talk about the national medal and what
it was and how important it was to the nation and that sort of thing, and he
gave a very nice talk. It was very brief. But we went through the whole
ceremony, he gave an award to each of us, and we all got our medals and went
and sat down and then the president left. And then we all filed out, again, to
music. There was a reception and then everybody else came out and we all got
together and there was a luncheon. It was really a gorgeous luncheon. And it
turns out my congresswoman from
And then after some
time we left. We had basically the afternoon and we didn’t have much to do, but
that night there was a formal dinner and reception. And we had to be all in tux
and evening dress and that sort of thing and all of our kids did too, so we men
had rented tuxes for the occasion. I don't own one anymore, not used that
often. So we all got dressed up and went to this reception. It was really a
fabulous event. And it was chaired by the Secretary of Commerce who opened. And
before the dinner, again, we waited outside and when the thing was all ready
and everybody was seated, the Marine Band played and we filed in and stood in
front of the dais by the Secretary of Commerce. And I think he made some
comments to each of us when we walked up. We walked up and shook his hand
anyway, but I don’t remember exactly what else happened.
But he had a
discussion with each of us and then we sat down and then, after we had eaten,
they went to a video where they played about a three minute video of each of
our careers. And at this point let me break and describe how they put that
together. I couldn’t believe it. They had a group that they had hired who did
this. And they called me because what they wanted to do was to interview me on
the phone but they wanted a high quality recording. They also wanted a whole
bunch of pictures and they had some questions. And it turned out at the time
they wanted to interview me I was out at Microsoft. And I told them that so
they got hold of a Microsoft VP who’s apparently on their industrial award
committee and he arranged for the--Microsoft has a research with the sound lab
out there--so he arranged for me to go sit in the Microsoft sound lab with all
of the microphones and stuff. So it’s a
very high quality recording they set up, and these people called me on the
phone and they asked me a whole bunch of questions.
And so I just
answered them, and it was just a very kind of a casual conversation for about
30 to 40 minutes. I had sent them a bunch of pictures that I’d found of albums
and stuff when I was kid or in college and family stuff, work stuff and stuff
at SEI. And it turned out that SEI had sent them some videotape and some
pictures and stuff. IBM had also pulled out stuff out of their archives. So
these people did an extraordinary job, and they had about two weeks to put this
together. And they put together this absolutely beautifully polished two to
three minute video on me. What’s amazing is they did it on everybody. I don't
know how they did it but it was an extraordinary piece of work at really high speed.
I mean they did it just very quickly because the whole, as I say, the whole
thing this ceremony had been put off, put off, and put off and then finally the
president had a window in his calendar and they said, “Okay, we can do it in
like two-and-a-half weeks.” So they only had a couple of weeks to put this
whole thing together. They hadn’t even told us about it. And so as I say these
people did an amazing job and it was really quite a video. I’ve got a CD of it
and my plan is to send it with my stuff to the museum.
Booch: That would be grand.
Humphrey: And I think I’ll
even send them my medal and the plaque if they want it. I guess that they
might.
Booch: I think there are very few
people at the museum in their archives that have such a medal.
Humphrey: As I say, I must
admit I’m thoroughly blessed. And while my kids would love to, they’ve all seen
it, but I think it would be much better to have it in a museum than have it in
somebody’s home.
Booch: Sure. Well, thank you. That’s a
wonderful story. Do you have some follow up on that?
Humphrey: I’m not quite done. So
then they had the dinner, and the next day there was a session over with the
Secretary of Commerce where we each gave about a 10-minute talk on what we were
doing and that sort of thing. And again, they presented us with a big sort of a
placard board that described the medal and described our work. And then that
was the end of it. But it was just a marvelous event. And I was so delighted. I
could bring all of our kids and Barbara. I was sorry to miss one of them but we
had a great time. But it really was a marvelous experience personally.