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Sent from: jim@SmallWorks.COM ()
Forwarded-by: George Neville-Neil <gnn@wrs.com>
Forwarded-by: Richard Golding <golding@cello.hpl.hp.com>
DAVID PACKARD, HP CO-FOUNDER, DIES AT 83
PALO ALTO, Calif., March 26, 1996 -- David Packard, co-founder and
chairman emeritus of Hewlett-Packard Company and one of the United States'
foremost business leaders and philanthropists, died today at Stanford
University Hospital. He was 83.
Packard had been hospitalized since Saturday, March 16, and was being
treated for pneumonia and complications. His children were at his bedside
when he died at 11:05 a.m. PST.
A pioneering influence on today's global electronics industry and on
modern management practices, Packard made significant contributions in
international business and government during his storied half-century
career. The electronics company that he founded with William Hewlett in
1939 in a garage in Palo Alto today is a multinational enterprise with
more than 100,000 employees and fiscal 1995 revenue of $31.5 billion.
The company frequently is cited for excellence in personnel practices,
business management, product quality and service -- all legacies of
Packard's influence.
Packard served as HP's president or chairman of the board from the
date of the company's incorporation in 1947 until his retirement in 1993.
He took a leave of absence from 1969 to 1971 to serve as Deputy Secretary
of the U.S. Defense Department during the first Nixon administration.
At the time of his death, Packard held 9.1 percent of HP's shares
outstanding, or 46.6 million shares. Packard previously had announced
his intention to transfer all HP shares from his estate to the David and
Lucile Packard Foundation upon his death.
HP does not expect that any shares will need to be sold to pay estate
taxes. In addition, the company anticipates no significant selling of
shares by the Packard family or foundation. Thus, the transfer of
Packard's shares should not result in any disruption of HP's operations
or in significant change in control.
Packard was born Sept. 7, 1912, in Pueblo, Colo., where his father
was an attorney. As a student at Stanford University, he distinguished
himself as a student and athlete. A rangy 6'5", he set records in track
as a freshman and later received varsity letters in football and
basketball.
His boyhood interest in electricity and science attracted him to the
emerging field of radio engineering, taught by Stanford University
Professor Frederick E. Terman, a noted authority. Packard became friends
with a fellow engineering student, Bill Hewlett, and they made plans on
a Colorado climbing trip to go into business together someday. In 1934,
Packard received his bachelor's degree from Stanford University and was
elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Sigma Xi academic honoraries.
After some months of graduate study at the University of Colorado,
Packard took a job with General Electric Co. in Schenectady, N.Y. In
April 1938, he married Lucile Salter of San Francisco, whom he had met at
Stanford. Later that year, at the urging of Terman and despite the
country's continuing economic depression, Packard took a leave from his
job and returned to Stanford on a fellowship.
During this time, Packard renewed his friendship with Hewlett, who
also had returned to Stanford to pursue graduate studies in electrical
engineering. In early 1939, with $538 in capital, the two founded HP
while completing work on their master of science degrees. They began
producing an innovative audio oscillator in Packard's garage. The
oscillator, designed by Hewlett, improved engineers' ability to develop
and test sound systems. One of the fledgling company's first orders was
>from Walt Disney Studios, which used eight HP oscillators in developing
the sound track for the movie "Fantasia."
Packard managed the company through World War II while Hewlett served
in the U.S. Army as a Signal Corps officer. Although HP had many
opportunities to accept short-term business contracts from the government
during the war years, Hewlett and Packard made a lasting decision not to
make HP a "hire-and-fire" operation. In the early 1940s, Packard and
Hewlett took other steps to build a loyal, dedicated work force and
instituted a cash profit-sharing program for all employees, which
continues today.
In 1947, shortly after Hewlett's return from the Army, the company
was incorporated, and Packard was named president. In 1957, the company
made its initial stock offering to the public. Both Packard and Hewlett
held sizable portions of HP common stock from then on. Subsequently, an
employee stock-purchase plan was created which enabled HP workers to
purchase shares in the company at a discount, keeping in line with the
founders' attitude toward employee well-being.
In 1964, Packard was elected chairman of the board and chief
executive officer, and Hewlett was named president. Packard held those
positions until 1969, when he resigned to become U.S. Deputy Secretary of
Defense within the first Nixon administration. He returned to the company
late in 1971 and was re-elected chairman in January 1972. After 1977,
when he turned 65, Packard reduced his involvement in the daily workings
of the company but remained board chairman until he retired on Sept. 17,
1993.
Throughout his HP career, Packard teamed with Hewlett to develop a
number of innovative employment and management techniques now widely
emulated in the business world. Catastrophic medical coverage, flexible
work hours, open offices, decentralized decision-making, management by
objective and employee "coffee talks" are among the many policies and
practices they introduced into their company. The resulting culture,
called the "HP Way," is recognized as one of the strongest and most
resilient in the business world today.
As a leader in the electronics industry, Packard was known for
expressing his opinions in direct, pragmatic terms. He was an outspoken
proponent of engineering education, a critic of unbalanced U.S.-Japan
trade and a supporter of greater trade with East Bloc nations as the best
way to establish lasting world peace. He frequently traveled to
Washington, often on presidential or cabinet-level invitation, to serve
on special government commissions, to exchange views with elected
officials or to testify at government hearings.
In addition to building HP, Packard was active in a number of
business, educational, professional and civic organizations throughout
his life.
Packard, his late wife Lucile and their four children personally
directed the development of the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, Calif.
The aquarium, a $55 million philanthropic project of the Packard family,
has attracted millions of visitors to the Central California coast.
Packard himself designed and built some of the wave-generating equipment
in his workshop.
During his career, Packard served as a director of the Boeing Co.,
Caterpillar Tractor Co., Chevron Corp. and Genentech Inc. At the time of
his death, he was a director of Beckman Laser Institute & Medical Clinic.
Packard was active in the Business Roundtable and was founding vice
chairman of the California Roundtable. He was named one of the top 10
business heroes in a 1986 Wall Street Journal poll of corporate chief
executive officers. He served as vice chairman of The Atlantic Council
and was a member of the board of overseers of the Hoover Institution.
He was vice chairman of the California Nature Conservancy, and a
director of the Wolf Trap Foundation, Vienna, Va., an organization devoted
to the performing arts.
Packard was a member of the White House Science Council, a fellow of
the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, a member of the
National Academy of Engineering and a lifetime member of the Instrument
Society of America. He was a co-founder and past chairman of the American
Electronics Association. He was a member of the U.S.-U.S.S.R. Trade &
Economic Council's committee on science and technology from 1975 to 1982
and a director of the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation from 1985 to
1987. He also chaired the U.S.-Japan Advisory Commission from 1983 to
1985. He served as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on
Science and Technology from 1990 to 1992.
Packard was a member of The Trilateral Commission from 1973 to 1981,
and from 1985 to 1986 chaired a presidential commission to study
management in the U.S. Department of Defense.
Packard was a trustee of Stanford University from 1954 to 1969 and
was president of the university's board of trustees from 1958 to 1960.
He served on the Palo Alto School Board from 1947 to 1956. He was a past
member of the governing boards of the National Merit Scholarship Corp.,
the Universities Research Association, the Institute for Educational
Affairs and Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International). At the
time of his death, he was a trustee of the Herbert Hoover Foundation, the
American Enterprise Institute and The Hoover Institution.
Packard was an avid outdoorsman. He liked to hunt and fish, and,
along with Hewlett, owned extensive cattle-ranching operations in
California and Idaho.
The David and Lucile Packard Foundation was founded in 1964 to direct
Packard's considerable interest in philanthropic activities. Through it,
the Packards supported and made extensive donations to scientific
research, community organizations, education, health care, conservation,
population projects and the arts totaling $461 million.
Among the grants made by the Foundation are $120 million for the
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (in addition to the $55 million
personal donation Packard gave to start the aquarium); $70 million for a
nationwide program of science and engineering research fellowships; and
$10 million to historically black colleges and universities for
scholarships in science and mathematics.
Over the years, Hewlett and Packard made personal donations of more
than $300 million to Stanford University. They contributed $77.4 million
in October 1994 for the completion of a state-of-the-art science and
engineering complex. Earlier in 1994, each gave $12.5 million for the
establishment of a Frederick Terman Fellowship.
In 1986, the Packards made a personal $40 million "cornerstone"
pledge for the construction of the Lucile Salter Packard Children's
Hospital, which opened in June 1991. At the same time, they donated $30
million to Stanford University and the School of Medicine to modernize
perinatal facilities and pediatric research laboratories. The Packards
made an additional $25 milliion donation to the university in 1993 to
advance knowledge in pediatrics and expand clinical services for children.
Packard is survived by his four children, David Woodley Packard,
Nancy Ann Packard Burnett, Susan Packard Orr, and Julie Elizabeth Packard.
Lucile Packard died in 1987.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Hewlett-Packard Company is a global manufacturer of computing,
communications and measurement products and services recognized for
excellence in quality and support. HP employs 105,200 people worldwide
and had revenues of $31.5 billion in its 1995 fiscal year.