Arnold Spielberg, former amateur radio operator and father of Steven Spielberg, dies at 103

[QRZ had his callsign as formerly W8IDX and W9AUM]

Arnold Spielberg, father of acclaimed film director Steven Spielberg, died of natural causes Tuesday at the age of 103, his family announced.

Arnold Spielberg, a pioneering computer designer, helped design General Electric’s GE-225 mainframe computer, enabling researchers at Dartmouth College to develop the coding tool known as BASIC that paved the way for personal computers, The Hollywood Reporter reported.

“When I see a PlayStation, when I look at a cell phone — from the smallest calculator to an iPad — I look at my dad and I say, ‘My dad and a team of geniuses started that,’” Steven Spielberg said, Variety reported.

According to the outlet, the elder Spielberg was born Feb. 6, 1917, in Cincinnati, Ohio. By the age of 6, he turned his family’s attic into a makeshift lab to create inventions. He received his first ham radio at 12, opening the door “to a lifetime of sharing stories with strangers over the airwaves.”

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