Watson, Thomas J., Jr.

Thomas J. Watson, Jr., in full Thomas John Watson, Jr., (born January 8, 1914, Dayton, Ohio, U.S.—died December 31, 1993, Greenwich, Connecticut), American business executive who inherited the leadership of International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) from his father, Thomas J. Watson, Sr., and propelled the company into the computer age.

After graduating in 1937 from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, Watson joined IBM as a junior salesman while his father presided at the company’s helm. In 1946, after returning from service in World War II in the Army Air Forces, he quickly moved through the ranks at IBM, becoming a vice president in that year, executive vice president in 1949, and finally president in 1952 (succeeding his father, who continued as chairman). The younger Watson ardently pushed for the company to reach beyond tabulating machines and enter the nascent computer industry. IBM finally did so, though later than its rivals; IBM’s first large automated system (the IBM 701) was unveiled in 1952.

Watson became CEO in 1956, when his father retired; five years later he was elected chairman. Watson’s aggressive tactics and heavy outlays for research established IBM’s dominance in the industry so thoroughly that the U.S. government filed an antitrust suit against the company in 1969. (The case was dropped in 1982.) By the time Watson retired in 1971, IBM’s stock had increased in value by more than $36 billion from when he gained the chairmanship. Watson later—from 1979 to 1981—served as ambassador to the Soviet Union, and he was on the board of directors of IBM until 1984. In his memoirs, Father, Son & Co.: My Life at IBM and Beyond (1990; with Peter Petre), Watson detailed his often stormy relationship with his father.

In 1968 Watson, together with his siblings, launched the fellowship program of the Thomas J. Watson Foundation, which his mother had established in 1961 in honour of her late husband. The Watson Fellowship program awarded college graduates a one-year grant for independent study and travel outside the United States.