Diebold, John

▪ 2006

      American business consultant (b. June 8, 1926, Weehawken, N.J.—d. Dec. 26, 2005, Bedford Hills, N.Y.), was an early promoter of the use of computer systems for business, and his visionary thinking concerning information technology helped usher in the computer age. When Diebold received his master's degree from the Harvard Business School in 1951, computers were room-sized devices with limited application. In 1952 Diebold published Automation, a book in which he foresaw how programmable devices would be used for the everyday operations of many kinds of business, and in 1954 he founded the management consulting firm John Diebold and Associates (later the Diebold Group, Inc.), which influenced many large American companies into computerizing their businesses. Diebold helped create the first computer systems in banks and in hospitals and his clients over several decades included city, state, and national governments. Through the Diebold Institute for Public Policy Studies, founded in 1968, Diebold sought to advance technology issues benefiting the general public.

* * *