Paul's Story
Early Life
Born: August 29, 1941
Childhood: Rogers Park, IL; moved to Birmingham, MI (Winter 1958)
Education
Hillsdale College (1959–1963)
Bachelor's degree in Mathematics, 1963
Where he met the love of his life, Shane Johnston
Family
First Date: October 1961 with Shane Johnston
Proposed: March 19, 1963
Married: Shane Johnston on August 23, 1963 in Battle Creek, MI
Married for: 61 years (22,316 days)
Children:
- Brett Linda (born February 5, 1965)
- Thomas Paul (born March 13, 1968)
Grandchildren:
- Paul Joseph (PJ) Stapleton (born September 14, 1998)
- Luke Francis Stapleton (born August 29, 2002)
- Margaret Shane Stapleton (born July 7, 2005)
- Morgan Douglas Swigert (born September 22, 2001)
- Annabelle Margaret Swigert (born March 1, 2004)
NASA Career (1963–1968)
NASA Lewis Research Center (now Glenn Research Center), Cleveland, Ohio
Started: June 17, 1963
Research Focus: Computational mathematics, fluid dynamics, and interactive computing systems
Published NASA Technical Notes:
- NASA TN D-3004 (1965): "Satisfaction of Asymptotic Boundary Conditions in Numerical Solution of Systems of Nonlinear Equations of Boundary-Layer Type" (co-authored with Philip R. Nachtsheim) - Advanced numerical methods for solving boundary-layer differential equations
- NASA TN D-3472 (August 1966): "Computer Generation of Quadrature Coefficients Utilizing the Symbolic Manipulation Language FORMAC" - Pioneering work in symbolic computation for numerical integration
- NASA TN D-4923 (November 1968): "COMPUTE - A Time-Sharing Desk Calculator Program" - Created an interactive computing system for the IBM 360/67 Time-sharing System, allowing users to perform calculations without writing programs
IBM Career
Started: September 21, 1968
- September 1968 — Joined IBM in the Chicago commercial branch office as a Systems Engineer supporting Bell Labs' IBM System 360 Model 67 Duplex running TSS/360 in Naperville, IL
- October 1972 — Moved to IBM Data Processing Division headquarters in White Plains, NY to manage the TSS development and support group
- May 1980 — Relocated with the Data Processing Division to Los Colinas, TX; continued managing TSS development and developed PC/IX (a version of Bell Labs Unix for the IBM PC) and VM/IX (a version for IBM's Virtual Machine)
- December 1985 — On loan to Trintex, later Prodigy — the IBM/Sears/CBS partnership developing an online service for news, shopping, mail, and messaging in White Plains, NY
Retired: March 13, 1995 from Prodigy and IBM
Other Career Highlights
MECA Software: October 10, 1995 – August 31, 1999
GE Capital: February 1, 2000 – April 26, 2002
Final Retirement: March 7, 2002
Life Journey
Paul and Shane's life together took them across the country:
Personal Milestones
- Father's Death: January 2, 1963 - Harry Arnold Swigert, age 54
- Mother's Death: April 2, 1995 - Martha Leona Nystrom Swigert
- Health Event: August 9, 2019 - Survived complete heart block, received pacemaker
- COVID-19: Tested positive April 14, 2022
- Shane's Passing: September 27, 2024 - After 61 years of marriage
Legacy
Paul's life spans an extraordinary arc of history - born just months before Pearl Harbor, he witnessed and contributed to the space age, the computer revolution, and the digital transformation of society. His work at NASA helped advance computational methods during the Apollo era, while his contributions to IBM's time-sharing systems laid groundwork for interactive computing that would eventually evolve into the systems we use today.
Beyond his technical achievements, Paul's greatest legacy is his family - 61 years with Shane, two children, five grandchildren, and the memories of a life well-lived together across the country.