Evelyn Berezin, who brought first word processor to market, dies at 93

Evelyn Berezin, a Bronx-born daughter of Jewish immigrants from Russia who built and marketed the first computerized word processor, died Saturday in Manhattan. She was 93.

A founder in 1969 of the Long Island-based Redactron Corp., Berezin created the Data Secretary, a processor-enhanced typewriter that jump-started a market later to be dominated by IBM and brands like Osborne, Wang, Tandy and Kaypro.

She sold the company to the Burroughs Corp. in 1976 and went on to careers in venture capital and consulting, according to her obituary in The New York Times.
“Why is this woman not famous?” British writer Gwyn Headley wrote in a 2010 blog post.

“Without Ms. Berezin there would be no Bill Gates, no Steve Jobs, no internet, no word processors, no spreadsheets; nothing that remotely connects business with the 21st century.”