William C. Norris; Pioneer In Computer Development

He graduated with an electrical engineering degree from the University of Nebraska in the Depression year 1932 and worked for Westinghouse Corp. until joining the Navy during World War II. He worked on intercepting and cracking enemy radio transmissions and helped build calculators to break codes faster.

That work led to his postwar creation, Engineering Research Associates in St. Paul, Minn. He changed from single-task to general-purpose machines, and the Navy bought his first product.

In 1951, his company was bought by Remington Rand, which was bought by the Sperry Corp., and Mr. Norris ran its Univac division. He left in 1957 to found Control Data, and within three years, his brilliant engineer Cray built the 1604, the most powerful computer in the world at that time.

The gargantuan IBM initially was caught so off guard that its chairman, Thomas J. Watson Jr., complained in a 1963 memo that IBM had lost its leadership position in the industry to a company whose laboratory employed "only 34 people, including the janitor.''

Control Data grew rapidly in the 1960s, with 45,000 employees by the end of the decade. The company built faster and faster computers and ran head-on into a fierce competition with IBM.

Mr. Norris sued on antitrust grounds and in 1973 settled out of court in what was widely regarded as a victory. Cray left to found a business and took with him Control Data's reputation as a leading maker of supercomputers.

After Mr. Norris retired, he founded the William C. Norris Institute, now based at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minn.

It focuses on using technology to improve education and created small-business incubators in the Twin Cities and a technical training program in Moscow for Russian entrepreneurs.

He was a recipient of the National Medal of Technology in 1986.

Survivors include his wife of 61 years, Jane Norris of Bloomington, and eight children.