|
Thomas John Watson Jr. (January 14, 1914 – December 31, 1993) was an American businessman, political figure, and philanthropist. He was the 2nd president of IBM (1952–1971), the 11th national president of the Boy Scouts of America (1964–1968), and the 16th United States Ambassador to the Soviet Union (1979–1981). He received many honors during his lifetime, including being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964. Watson was called "the greatest capitalist in history" and one of "100 most influential people of the 20th century". ==Early life== Thomas Watson Jr. was born on January 14, 1914, just before his father was dismissed from his job at NCR. Then two sisters were born, Jane and Helen, before the youngest child, Arthur Kittredge Watson, was born. Both sons were immersed in IBM from a very early age. He was taken on plant inspections — his first memory of such a visit (to the Dayton, Ohio factory) was at the age of five — business tours to Europe and he made appearances at IBM Hundred Per Cent Club meetings (annual gatherings for the company's elite sales representatives), even before he was old enough to attend school. At home his father's discipline was erratic and often harsh. Around the time he was thirteen, Tom Jr. suffered for six years with what might now be called clinical depression. Talking to a reporter in 1974, Watson Jr. described his relationship with his father; "My father and I had terrible fights ... He seemed like a blanket that covered everything. I really wanted to beat him but also make him proud of me." But this relationship was not all negative: "I really enjoyed the ten years (working) with him". In his book he says; "I was so intimately entwined with my father. I had a compelling desire, maybe out of honor for the old gentleman, maybe out of sheer cussedness, to prove to the world that I could excel in the same way that he did."〔 Watson Jr. attended the Hun School of Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey. He claimed in his autobiography that as a child he had a "strange defect in his vision" that made written words appear to fall off the page when he tried to read them. As a result Watson struggled in school, and he acknowledged that Brown University reluctantly admitted him as a favor to his father. He obtained a business degree in 1937. He married Olive Cawley (1918–2004) in 1941.〔 They had six children. After graduating Watson became a salesman for IBM, but had little interest in the job. The turning point was his service as a pilot in the Army Air Force during World War II. Brother "Dick" (Arthur) Watson had dropped out of Yale as a Major in Ordnance. Tom Jr. became a Lieutenant Colonel flying military commanders. Tom Jr. later admitted to journalists that the one career he would have liked to follow was an airline pilot. Piloting came easily to him and for the first time he had confidence in his abilities. Toward the end of his service Watson worked for Major General Follett Bradley, who suggested that he should try to follow his father at IBM. Watson regularly flew Bradley, the director of lend-lease programs to the Soviet Union, to Moscow during the war. On these trips he learned Russian, which would later serve him well as the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union. Watson returned to IBM at the beginning of 1946. He was promoted to be a Vice President just six months later and was promoted to the board just four months after that. He became Executive Vice-President in 1949. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Thomas Watson Jr.」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|