Learned FORTRAN on an IBM 1620 Model 1 in a summer school class at the Syracuse NY high school, Central Tech in 1964. My first exposure to computers occurred in the summer of 1960 when I was able to read user documentation for the IBM 650 computer used at Syracuse University.

First full time job in the industry was with General Electric's Special Information Products Department in Syracuse (1966). First tasks were a cross assembler and processor simulator for a future airborne military computer product (M-355). These programs were hosted on a new mainframe developed at SIPD, the M-605. The M-605 was a 36 bit word mainframe based on the GE 625/635 mainframe that was in production at GE's Computer Department HQ in Phoenix Arizona. Targeted for military customers, it had extensions for real-time I/O and was GE's first computer designed to use newly available integrated circuits (5400/7400 series TTL logic). Circuit boards were ~12" square and locked in place to provide a ruggedized computer capable of off road transport with no ill effects. The GE 625/635 used discrete components only (single transistor components with resistors and diodes packaged on ~6" square circuit boards). First GE-625 shipped in 1965. First M-605 was delivered to the US Army in 1967.