“Edgar F. (Ted) Codd,” a biographical sketch and link to Codd’s Turing Award Lecture on the Web site of the Association for Computing Machinery
Edgar Codd was a british flight lieutenant who attended some college before he served for his country. After the war, Edgar finished out his time at college, changing his degree to mathematics. Part of his training for the RAF occurred in america, and when he was there he discovered his love and opportunity in the field of mathematics. He later emigrated to america working as a store clerk then as a lecturer at the University of Tennessee on mathematics. He was eventually accepted onto a team at IBM working on multiple projects: Selective Sequence Electronic Calculator, IBM's 701 computer, and STRETCH. Edgar Codd and his team invented the rational model for database management later in his career there. They were able to predict the shift towards better database technology and come up with the product SQL/DS. This planted the seed to the relational database industry where he would watch it grow and flourish into the multi-billion dollar industry that it still is.