"The conversation soon turned to my work," he wrote. "When it became clear to von Neumann that I was concerned with the development of an electronic computer capable of 333 multiplications per second, the whole atmosphere of our conversation changed from one of relaxed good humor to one more like the oral examination of the doctor's degree in mathematics."

Herman Heine Goldstine was a Chicago native and received bachelor's, master's and doctorate degrees in mathematics from the University of Chicago.

Early in his career, he taught mathematics at the University of Chicago and the University of Michigan.

In 1941, he married Adele Katz, who helped program the ENIAC and wrote an operating manual for it. She died in 1964.

Survivors include his wife, Ellen Watson Goldstine, whom he married in 1966, of Bryn Mawr; two children from his first marriage; and four grandchildren.

After his Army work, Dr. Goldstine worked at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, N.J., helping create a stored-program machine that became the model for the early IBM computers.

He worked at IBM from 1958 to 1984, serving as director of mathematical sciences in research, director of scientific development for the data processing division and consultant to the research director.

In retirement, he spent 13 years as executive officer of the American Philosophical Society, the learned group founded by Benjamin Franklin.

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan presented to Dr. Goldstine a National Medal of Science for "fundamental contributions to development of the digital computer, computer programming and numerical analysis."

He continued writing -- often from his home computer, on which he did his taxes and other tasks.

"In some ways, it's become just another appliance," he told Newsday in 1996. "But it's much better than that because it can interact with you, which is pretty thrilling for children.

"They don't want to hear about old times and vacuum tubes," he said. "They want to push it to the next uses, which is how it should be."