Evelyn Berezin, 93, Dies; Built the First True Word Processor

[TexasTowelie]

Evelyn Berezin, a computer pioneer who emancipated many a frazzled secretary from the shackles of the typewriter nearly a half-century ago by building and marketing the first computerized word processor, died on Saturday in Manhattan. She was 93.

Marc Berezin, a nephew, confirmed her death, at the Mary Manning Walsh Home. He said she had learned that she had lymphoma several months ago but had chosen to forgo treatment.

In an age when computers were in their infancy and few women were involved in their development, Ms. Berezin (pronounced BEAR-a-zen) not only designed the first true word processor; in 1969, she was also a founder and the president of the Redactron Corporation, a tech start-up on Long Island that was the first company exclusively engaged in manufacturing and selling the revolutionary machines.

To secretaries, who constituted 6 percent of the American work force then, Redactron word processors arrived in an office like a trunk of magic tricks, liberating users from the tyranny of having to retype pages marred by bad keystrokes and the monotony of copying pages for wider distribution. The machines were bulky, slow and noisy, but they could edit, delete, and cut and paste text.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/10/obituaries/evelyn-berezin-dead.html

[Blue_true]

1. Does anyone remember what big typing pools were like?

Lots of typewriters in a room, say for a company that did reports or advertising? I really only know the more advanced word processors of my early days, they were silent and similar to computers somewhat.

[burrowowl]

2. Yes

and the IBM PCs that messed up the end of the lines, so when proofing what came from the pool one would hope that the mistakes were at the beginning of the line. WYSIWYG was a wonderful innovation. My mother said the photocopier was the first big step so that when a writer would add a paragraph in the middle of the page, cut and past would save the day!

[lastlib]

3. What I would've given for one of those in 1978.......

Senior honors thesis--typed over four hundred pages on a clunky manual typewriter. Spent many hours soaking my hands in ice-water, and still have problems with my knuckle joints--hurts to straighten all my fingers.

[Hekate]

6. I got my BA in 1971, using a manual typewriter. Cutting and pasting was the real deal. In 1985 or so

...I got my first Mac and never looked back. Gods did I love that little machine -- it was absolutely intuitive.

The IBM self-correcting Selectric enabled me to earn a living as a secretary, but the Mac I bought for myself liberated me in so many ways for writing and volunteer work. When I finally returned to grad school in 1994 I used the same Mac LC to go all the way to my Master's.

Hubby bought me an upgraded, internet-capable Mac for my PhD work, and while many of my classmates hired editors and professional typist/word processors, my Mac was my best friend in the gruelling dissertation process.

That old manual typewriter -- I really had to hammer those keys, and I was not a well-trained typist in those days, so I was very very slow. Accurate and a good proofreader, but ungodly slow.

Gods bless the lady who invented the word processor!💖💖💖

[iluvtennis]

4. Wow on inventing the word processor. Rest in Peace Ms. Berezin.

[dalton99a]

5. Great article