Born in
Holyoke, Massachusetts, Sussenguth received a
Bachelor of Arts (A.B.) in 1954 from
Harvard University, a
Master of Science (M.S.) in
electrical engineering in 1959 from
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in 1964 from Harvard. After he served at the
United States Navy as an officer in the Pacific Fleet, Sussenguth joined
IBM in 1959. Sussenguth started in 1959 in the Research Division in the development of
formal language descriptions. This work led to Sussenguth meeting
Kenneth E. Iverson and
Adin Falkoff. Iverson had developed a formal notation, which was documented in a book
A Programming Language. It was the original version of the programming language
APL. Chapter 2 of
A Programming Language had used Iverson's notation to describe the
IBM 7090 computer. In early 1963, Falkoff, later joined by Iverson and Sussenguth, proceeded to use the notation to produce a formal description of the
IBM System/360 computer then under design. The result was published in 1964 in a double issue of the IBM Systems Journal, thereafter known as the "grey book" or "grey manual". The book was used in a course on computer systems design at the IBM Systems Research Institute. Sussenguth was an advisor to the
National Bureau of Standards and a visiting professor at some universities. He was elected Fellow of the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and received multiple awards and honors, including: in 1981, an
IBM Fellowship for "technical leadership in the development of system network architecture"; in 1988, the Data Communications Interface Award; in 1989, the
IEEE Simon Ramo Medal; in 1992, he was elected a
member of the National Academy of Engineering (computer science). == Publications ==