IP: Obit for HP, written by David Packard

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Harry Saal <Harry () saal org>
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 18:10:59 -0700
To: Dave Farber <Dave () farber net>
Subject: Obit for HP, written by David Packard

A poster placed in the Stanford Theatre lobby:

Hewlett Packard
1938 -- 2002
R.I.P.

The Stanford Theatre still exists today only because of the employees of
the Hewlett Packard Company. Without their achievements over the years,
there would have been no foundation to purchase and restore this theatre.

Palo Alto might have had one more book store, or perhaps another
restaurant. Architects had plans ready for a new "Casablanca Cafe" at
this location when the Packard Foundation rescued the theater in 1987.

The Hewlett Packard Company was founded in 1938 in a garage on Addison
Street only a few blocks from where you are now standing. Back then, the
Stanford Theatre was showing brand new movies. In 1938 you could have
seen Cary Grant <http://us.imdb.com/Name?Grant,+Cary> and Katharine
Hepburn <http://us.imdb.com/Name?Hepburn,+Katharine> in Bringing Up Baby
<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0029947> and Holiday
<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0030241> . You could have seen Errol Flynn
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Flynn,+Errol> in The Adventures of Robin Hood
<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0029843> . You could have seen Alice Faye
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Faye,+Alice>, Don Ameche
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Ameche,+Don>, Ethel Merman
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Merman,+Ethel>, and Tyrone Power
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Power,+Tyrone> in Alexander's Ragtime Band
<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0029852> . You could have seen Jimmy Stewart
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Stewart,+James> and Jean Arthur
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Arthur,+Jean> in Frank Capra
<http://us.imdb.com/Name?Capra,+Frank>'s You Can't Take It With You
<http://us.imdb.com/Title?0030993> . You still can see these same movies
at the Stanford Theatre. Our audiences know that they are truly timeless.

The HP Way also touched many people's lives. Most of us expected that it
would last forever -- that it would prove as timeless as a Frank Capra
movie. But those entrusted with the duty to safeguard it have exercised
their legal right to make another choice. Dura lex, sed lex. The law is
harsh, but it is the law.

HP employees are now on a new ship, being taken on a new voyage. The
company has even changed its stock symbol to HPQ to stress that the
"old" HP is gone. For the sake of the surviving employees, of course I
hope for a good outcome. But it is hard to imagine that their leaders
can invent something better than what they left behind.

David W. Packard
The Stanford Theatre Foundation.




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