Gerrit van der Mey

Gerrit van der Mey (1914-2002) was a Dutch mathematician and early computer programmer who lost his sight at age four and his hearing at thirty, yet built a career at the center of the Netherlands first computing projects. He earned a doctorate in mathematics in 1947 for work on algebraic curves, then joined the Dutch postal and telecommunications company PTT in 1951, where he wrote software for the PTERA and ZEBRA computers, among the earliest built in the Netherlands, and later developed compilers for ALGOL, LISP, SNOBOL3 and ALGOL 68. He also invented braille-based communication devices, including a braille telephone and telex system, and was made a knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1982.