J Presper Eckert Jr. attended the William Penn Carter School in Germanstown. In 1937, after graduating from school, he entered the Moore School of Electrical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania from where he graduated in 1941. After graduation he was offered a teaching job at Moore, where he met John Mauchly. Mauchly had many ideas about the development of computers, and Eckert quickly became interested.
Later the two would collaborate on the ENIAC computer, one of the first computers of it’s kind in 1946. After it’s success, both left Moore and formed the Electric Control Company, and created the BINAC. Electric Control Company became Eckert-Mauchly in 1950 and continued to build some of the famous early computers. Eckert held patents on 85 inventions and numerous awards before his death in 1995.