Before the publication of Tracy Kidder’s The Soul of a New Machine, in 1981, there was no such thing as the world’s most famous computer engineer, because there were no famous computer engineers. That changed with Kidder’s acclaimed account of the misfits who created the MV/8000 under the leadership of Tom West. But though West enjoyed recognition for his achievement, he resented the forced intimacy of fame. “It offends me when people think they know me because of the book,” he said in 2000.
Born in 1939 in Bronxville, N.Y., the son of an oft-relocated AT&T executive, Joseph Thomas West attended four high schools before being admitted to Amherst College, said The New York Times. An indifferent student, he took time off from school to work at the Smithsonian Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., where he developed an interest in computers. He went to work for Data General in the mid-1970s, “at a time when competition for new products in the computer industry was increasingly driven by the threat of obsolescence.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
'Is the death penalty racist? Of course it is.'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Today's political cartoons - May 8, 2024Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons - social media guilt, gag orders, and more
-
Boy Scouts changes name to Scouting AmericaSpeed Read The organization is rebranding, citing inclusivity
-
Benjamin Zephaniah: trailblazing writer who 'took poetry everywhere'Why Everyone's Talking About Remembering the 'radical' wordsmith's 'wit and sense of mischief'
-
Shane MacGowan: the unruly former punk with a literary soulWhy Everyone's Talking About The Pogues frontman died aged 65
-
'Euphoria' star Angus Cloud dies at 25Speed Read
-
Legendary jazz and pop singer Tony Bennett dies at 96Speed Read
-
Martin Amis: literary wunderkind who ‘blazed like a rocket’feature Famed author, essayist and screenwriter died this week aged 73
-
Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian folk legend, is dead at 84Speed Read
-
Barry Humphries obituary: cerebral satirist who created Dame Edna Everagefeature Actor and comedian was best known as the monstrous Melbourne housewife and Sir Les Patterson
-
Mary Quant obituary: pioneering designer who created the 1960s lookfeature One of the most influential fashion designers of the 20th century remembered as the mother of the miniskirt
