Tony Morgan, June 1937- April 4th 2020. Tony Morgan, who has died aged 83 after contracting Covid-19, was one of the heroes of the early days of computers. As a computer engineer from the late 1950s, he was responsible for the installation of the pioneering Leo computers worldwide, including for the GPO (now BT) for telephone billing. After a 38-year career he remained an active member of the Leo Heritage Project, using his unrivalled knowledge to identify the company’s artefacts. Tony took early retirement in 1995 but continued to work with the Heritage Project in the rescue and identification of computer artefacts, and advised on two books, User Driven Innovation (1996), edited by David Caminer and Leo, The First Business Computer (1994), by Peter Bird.As well as a demanding job, Tony was very sociable, and lived a full life with a wide range of activities. He played rugby for Lyons/Centaurs until he was 42 and continued as treasurer and club secretary for a further 25 years. His passion was Formula One and he detailed records of all races for over 50 years. Keen on jazz, he attended dance weekends until arthritis stopped it.
An Appreciation of Tony’s life and contribution to LEO was published in the Spring 2020 edition of LEO Matters, pages 14-15 and can be found at: http://www.leo-computers.org.uk/images/LeoNewsletterSpring2020.pdf
The Guardian published an obituary of Tony in its Other Lives section on May 7th 2020 by Frank Land. This can be found at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/may/07/tony-morgan-obituary