Tom West
| |
|---|---|
West at home in Westport MA, 2009
| |
| Born | Joseph Thomas West (1939-11-22)November 22, 1939
New York City, New York, U.S.
|
| Died | May 19, 2011(2011-05-19) (aged 71) |
| Alma mater | Amherst College, B.A. 1962 |
| Children | 2 |
Joseph Thomas West III (November 22, 1939 – May 19, 2011)[1] was an American technologist. West is notable for being the key figure in the Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction book The Soul of a New Machine.[2]
West began his career in computer design at RCA, after seven years at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a job he'd gotten right out of college.[3] He started working for Data General in 1974.[3] He became the head of Data General's Eclipse group and then became the lead on the Eagle project, building a machine officially named the Eclipse MV/8000.[3] After the publication of Soul of a New Machine, West was sent to Japan by Data General where he helped design DG-1, the first full-screen laptop.[3] His last project in 1996, a thin Web server, was intended to be an internet-ready machine.[4] West retired as Chief Technologist in 1998.[5]
West was married to Elizabeth (Cohon) West in 1965; they divorced in 1994.[6] The couple had two daughters, Katherine West and librarian Jessamyn West.[7] West married Cindy Woodward (his former assistant at Data General) in 2001; the couple divorced in 2011. West died at the age of 71 in his Westport, Massachusetts home of an apparent heart attack.[6] His nephew, Christopher Schwarz, is a former editor of Popular Woodworking magazine, author of The Anarchist's Toolchest, and co-founder of Lost Art Press; West's death prompted Schwarz to "leave the magazine and do my own thing".[8]
|
| |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| People |
|
| |||||
| Computers |
| ||||||
| Software |
| ||||||
| Related |
| ||||||
 | This biographical article relating to a computer specialist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
