This document began as a summary of the computer-science research of the RAND computer
department, then morphed into a reasonably comprehensive professional memoir that
records and describes achievements, organizational details, and activities of the RAND
department that supplied the corporation with computing support and conducted a program
of computer-science research. Variously named over the years, the department’s life
span paralleled the evolution and growth of a commercial computing industry and the
concurrent rise of computer science as an accepted discipline in academia