William Hewlett founded the electronics and computer company Hewlett-Packard Company with American engineer David Packard.
Reproduced with permission from Hewlett-Packard Company Archives.
William Hewlett (born May 20, 1913 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA; died January 12, 2001 in Palo Alto, California) was an American engineer and businessman who co-founded an electronics and computer company. was a person. Hewlett-Packard Company (HP).
Hewlett became interested in science and electronics as a child and began studying engineering at Stanford University in California in 1930. There he met an American engineer. David Packard and the two became lifelong friends. After graduating in 1934, Hewlett earned a master’s degree in engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1936 before returning to Stanford for further studies.
1938, at the recommendation of an engineering professor With Frederick Terman and $538 in startup capital, Hewlett & Packard founded a small electronics business in a rented garage in Palo Alto, California. They formalized their business and incorporated it as Hewlett-Packard on January 1, 1939. One of HP’s products, an audio oscillator, brought the company its first success when Walt Disney Productions purchased eight devices to test sound equipment for the animated film “Fantasia.” (1940).
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A garage in Palo Alto, California, where William Hewlett and David Packard began manufacturing electronics in 1938.
Reproduced with permission from Hewlett-Packard Company Archives.
After serving in the U.S. Army Signal Corps during World War II, Hewlett returned to HP in 1947 and became vice president, becoming president in 1964, a position he held until 1977. The company expanded rapidly and in 1968 released its first desktop scientific calculator, the HP 9100A. In 1972, the HP-35 pocket scientific calculator was introduced, making the slide rule almost obsolete. HP became even more famous with its 1984 laser jet printer. Hewlett served as HP’s CEO (1969-1978), Chairman of the Management Committee (1977-83), Vice Chairman of the Board (1983-87), and Director Emeritus (1987 until his death in 2001) . Hewlett helped improve the technical aspects of HP products, and he and Packard promoted an innovative management style that emphasized creativity, flexibility, openness, and teamwork.
The HP-35 was the first pocket scientific calculator.
Reproduced with permission from Hewlett-Packard Company Archives.
In 1966, Hewlett and his first wife, Flora, established the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which makes bequests for numerous environmental, artistic, educational, and social causes. In 1983, he received the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award in the United States. After his death, Hewlett was one of the wealthiest Americans, with a fortune of $9 billion, and his estate bequeathed $6 billion to the Hewlett Foundation.
Editor of Encyclopedia BritannicaThis article was recently revised and updated by Tara Ramanathan.
