Joe McNulty DOB: 1940 Joined LEO: 1966
Role in LEO: Site Maintenance Engineer LEO III; System 4
Abstract: Born in Northern Ireland, father miner, mother textile worker, moved with
large family to village in Northumberland, failed 11+, educated in local elementary
school till age of 15 without any qualifications or certificates. One brother was an
apprentice electrician at a local pit and attended Carlisle Technical College one day a
week. Joe taking a peek at his brother’s books became interested and he too became an
apprentice electrician at a local coal mine and attending Carlisle Technical College where
he gained his ONC in mathematics and Electronics at the highest level. In 1961 opted to
join RAF as a Radar technician serving part of his time in Malta. On completing his
service, having acquired a love for electronics, looked for a job with computers and in
1966 was taken on by EELM to train as maintenance engineer on LEO IIIs at Radley
House. Notes the quality of training he received. “I loved every minute of the
course”. Moved to Scotland as site engineer on a LEO IIIs and System 4
machines. After a successful career left ICL in 1972 to work in a number of electronic
companies, before setting up his own consultancy and completing an honours degree in
mathematics at the Open University. Joe retired in 2009. Final words from a fascinating
memoir: “For me, I think, LEO provided an environment and situation in which I could
succeed in my own terms. I was doing work that I could understand, that I liked and that
made sense to me. In a sense, that gave me an attitude of if I can understand and use a
computer, I can learn to do anything. That’s a big thing to say about a company but I
believe that, even then, it was a special sort of company with special people in it”.
Repository: Dropbox
https://www.dropbox.com/search/personal?path=%2F&preview=Joe+McNulty+Memoir.
doc&qsid=46282171009852707120531243657035&query=joe+mcnulty&search_token=
maaZCi5EZfs9ghMHde3MaOmE5gIkeIs7mVlUbNhfSkQ%3D
Copyright: LEO Computers Society
Restrictions: None Known
