Erich Bloch

Erich Bloch, IBM vice president and head of the corporate technical personnel development staff, joined IBM in 1952 as an engineer in Poughkeepsie. As Director of the National Science Foundation from 1984-1990, Mr. Bloch oversaw the Foundation's $3 billion annual budget and the award of 12,000 - 14,000 research grants in natural and social sciences and engineering. He held a number of positions there and was named director of the Poughkeepsie laboratory in 1968. He became a member of the Corporate Technical Committee in 1972 and, in 1975, was named general manager of the East Fishkill facility. While there, in 1976, he was made a vice president of the System Products Division, later the Data Systems Division. Mr. Bloch was named assistant group executive, technology, Data Processing Product Group in 1980. He became head of the corporate technical personnel development staff in August 1981 and was elected an IBM vice president in the following month. Mr. Bloch studied electrical engineering at the Federal Polytechnic Institute of Zurich (Switzerland) and received his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the University of Buffalo, New York. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He is on the Board of Directors of the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) and is the chairman of the Semiconductor Research Cooperative (SRC). Mr. Bloch was born on Jan. 9, 1925, in Sulzburg, Germany, to Joseph Bloch, a businessman, and the former Toni Baum. In 1939, his parents sent him to Switzerland, where he lived in a home for refugees and studied at the Federal Polytechnic Institute. His parents perished in concentration camps during the war. He married Renee Stern, who died in 2004. In addition to his daughter, he is survived by two granddaughters and two great-grandchildren.