HISTORY
Donald Peterson was born August 11, 1931 in Siren, WI.  He received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from North Dakota State University (NDSU) in 1955.  In 1956 he joined the NDSU faculty as an instructor of physics.  In 1959 he received a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering at NDSU.  That same year he became an Electrical Engineering instructor at NDSU.  He was appointed to be the initial University Computer Center Director at NDSU in 1961; a position he held until his retirement in 1998.  He became an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1965.  Over the years Peterson's job was to help steer NDSU through the swiftly moving current of computer technology.  In the mid 1970s, the North Dakota Board of Higher Education began planning a computer network to ensure that all state educational institutions had equivalent computer capacities.  Peterson was instrumental in the effort to make NDSU the center for academic applications for the statewide computer network.  Through four decades Peterson worked to expand the facility of the University Computer Center, as well as working in conjunction with others to write proposals for grants from various institutions.  He was also involved with the formation of the Industrial Agricultural Communications Center (IACC).

SCOPE AND CONTENT
The collection is broken down into eight series.

The first series includes contains correspondence of Peterson.  The content of the correspondence ranges from dealings with the University administration to discussion concerning various grants and proposals.  The dates range from 1968 to 1984 and are broken down into three folders correlating to the three decades.

The professional papers series contains three published works of Peterson pertaining to the benefit of computer related science to the work of agriculture.  He has three different works in this series that date from 1965-1967.

National Science Foundation is the third series.  The first folder contains all related correspondence regarding various grants and proposals.  The second folder contains records, programs, and the official grant proposals with the NSF.

The Computer Center series consists of five folders.  The first folder contains correspondence, building plans, and inventory from the 1960s and 70s.  The second folder is dedicated entirely to the various site plans that were drafted up between 1962 and 1988.  The third folder in the series is all the correspondence from 1980-88.  Records of the 1980s are contained in the fourth folder.  Plans and proposals of the 1980s are contained within the fifth folder.

The fifth series is Computer Science Faculty Papers and is work done by the faculty with collaboration with Peterson regarding computer related topics.

Computer Related Committees and Groups series contains eight folders with seven different groups, all relating to computing issues.  The first folder contains information on the Higher Education Computer Network between the dates 1978-1985.  Second, is the Board of Higher Education papers from 1970-71.  The third folder is the Special Interest Group on University Computer Centers, which contains information on the peer reviews conducted by Peterson and his staff.  The fourth folder is the Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Education.  The Northwest Area Foundation is the fifth folder in this series.  The Word Processing Committee is the sixth folder.  The Legislative Committee correspondence between 1967-1970 is the seventh folder.  The eighth folder is the Legislative Committee consulting reports and records.

The seventh series is the Hardware and Hardware Agencies series.  This contains seven folders with five of them being dedicated to individual hardware models.  The first folder is dedicated to the IBM 360/370 model and dates from 1968-78.  The second folder is about the 1620 model and has usage surveys from 1967.  Third are the proposals and programs for the IBM CAD/CAM from 1982.  The fourth folder contains correspondence and standards from 1983 concerning microcomputers on campus.  The fifth folder relates to the VAX computer and contains correspondence and proposals from 1983-86.  The sixth folder contains correspondence and invoices from IBM from 1970-75.  The seventh folder is for EMM, the main distributing company that Peterson dealt with from 1973-80.

The last series is entitled Study Reports and Plans.  It contains eight folders.  The first folder is NDSU computer committee on the 360 model from 1966.  The second is the Arthur Anderson & Company report on Data Processing at NDSU from 1968.  Third is the Legislative Committee report on Data Processing from 1969.  The fourth folder contains the Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Company report on Data Processing from 1970.  The Ernst & Ernst report on Data Processing from 1976 is the fifth folder in this series.  The sixth folder contains the report from The State Board of Higher Education on Database Management from 1978.  The seventh folder is the report submitted by The Computational Resources Committee regarding computer resource planning from 1978.  The last folder of the collection is the Data Processing Committee report on Data Processing service from 1979.
 
 

Box/Folder.........Box Listing

1/1...........Finding Aid

     Correspondence Series
1/2 ..........1960s
1/3 ..........1970s
1/4 ..........1980s

     Professional Papers Series
1/5 ..........1965-67

     National Science Foundation Series
1/6 ...........Correspondence
1/7 ...........Records, programs, grant proposals

      Computer Center Series
1/8 ...........Correspondence, building plans, inventory 1962-78
1/9............Site Plans
1/10..........Correspondence 1980-88
1/11..........Records 1980s
1/12..........Plans, proposals 1980s

    Computer Science Faculty Papers Series
1/13..........Papers

    Computer Related Committees and Groups
1/14..........HECN 1978-85
1/15..........Board of Higher Education 1970-71
1/16..........Special Interest Group on UCC
1/17..........Fund for the Improvement of Post Secondary Ed
1/18..........Northwest Area Foundation
1/19..........Word Processing Committee
1/20..........Legislative Committee correspondence 1967-70
1/21..........Legislative Committee records

    Hardware and Hardware Agencies Series
1/22..........IBM 360/370 1968-78
1/23..........1620 model usage surveys 1967
1/24..........IBM CAD/CAM proposals, programs 1982
1/25..........Microcomputer correspondence, standards 1983
1/26..........VAX correspondence, proposals 1983-86
1/27..........IBM corrrespondence, invoices 1970-75
1/28..........EMM invoices, correspondence, lease agreements 1973-80

    Study Reports and Plans Series
2/1............NDSU Computer Committee, 360 model 1966
2/2............Arthur Anderson & Co., data processing report 1968
2/3............Legislative Research Committee, data processing 1969
2/4............Peat, Marwick, Mitchell, data processing 1969
2/5............Ernst&Ernst, data processing 1970
2/6............State Board of Higher Ed, database management 1978
2/7............Computational Resources Committee, resources plan 1978
2/8............Data Processing Committee, data processing service, 1979
 
 
 

Processed by EL - 5/01
 

univarchives@www.lib.ndsu.nodak.edu University Archives, 701-231-8914 Published by the University Archives, NDSU Last Updated: 5/19/04