The imposing piece of equipment, installed at Cadbury Fry Hudson in 1963, was bigger than a car.
Its installation was among decades of achievements in IT that led to Mr McMillan being awarded an honorary fellowship by IT Professionals New Zealand at a ceremony at Toitu Otago Settlers Museum in Dunedin last night.
National president Anthony Dowling praised Mr McMillan’s foresight.
‘‘To see the significance of early computing equipment ... and preserving the historic computers which has enabled the likes of Toitu to have a truly unique collection.’’
Mr McMillan (84), who now lives at Bannockburn, was overwhelmed by the honour.
‘‘I’m amazed. It’s the last thing I expected,’’ he said.
He first started working in IT at the age of 22 in 1958, when he worked on accounting machines.
Since then, he had worked to preserve IT equipment for educational purposes.
