During World War II John R Opel (1925-2011) fought in the Philippines and Okinawa. In 1949 he joined IBM as a sales representative. Opel lead the commercial introduction in 1964 of the seminal IBM System 360 mainframe computer. He became Vice President in 1966 and Group Executive of the Data Processing Product Group in 1972. In 1974 he was named President until 1985. In this period Opel managed IBM's move into personal computers. He served as CEO (1981-1985) and Chairman (1983-1986) of IBM.
International Business Machines Corporation, stock certificate for less than 100,000 shares, 1983
Facsimile signature of John Roberts Opel as Chairman of the Board in lower right corner.
The darker blue rectangle printed below the serial number contains a latent image.
When the certificate is tilted and viewed against light falling at a shallow angle the word 'IBM' is revealed.
Printed by the United States Banknote Corporation