DAVID PACKARD

1912–1996

BY JOEL BIRNBAUM

DAVID PACKARD, cofounder of the Hewlett-Packard Company and one of the nation's foremost business leaders and philanthropists, died on March 26, 1996, at the age of eighty-three.

From humble beginnings in a Palo Alto garage in 1939, Packard and his partner, Bill Hewlett, built an engineering-based company that today is a multinational enterprise with more than 100,000 employees in 120 countries and annual revenues exceeding $40 billion. Its technical prowess, innovative management practices, and consistent commercial success—all legacies of Dave Packard—have made it the prototype of the modern technological company and one of the most widely admired corporations in the world.

Dave was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1971 and received its Founders Award in 1979.

He was born September 7, 1912, in Pueblo, Colorado, where his father was an attorney and his mother a high school teacher. He decided in grade school that he wanted to be an engineer— even though his father had hoped he would study law. At Stanford University Dave distinguished himself as a student and athlete. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, and at a rangy six-foot-five, he set records in track as a freshman and later played varsity football and basketball.

He studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, and it was there he made two important friendships. One was with