George Morrow, a Personal Computer Visionary, Dies at 69

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: "John F. McMullen" <observer () westnet com>
Date: Fri, 9 May 2003 03:45:26 -0400 (EDT)
To: "johnmac's living room" <johnmacsgroup () yahoogroups com>
Cc: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: George Morrow, a Personal Computer Visionary, Dies at 69

> From the New York Times --
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/09/obituaries/09MORR.html

George Morrow, a Personal Computer Visionary, Dies at 69
By JOHN MARKOFF

George Morrow, a mathematician and programmer who was a member of a group
of unorthodox hobbyists who were instrumental in creating the personal
computer industry, died at his home in San Mateo, Calif., on Wednesday.

He was 69 and had suffered from aplastic anemia for the last year, his
wife said.

Mr. Morrow was born in Detroit. He dropped out of high school, but at the
age of 28 decided to return to school and received a bachelor's degree in
physics from Stanford University and a master's degree in mathematics from
the University of Oklahoma. He entered a Ph.D. program in mathematics at
the University of California at Berkeley, but was sidetracked by his
passion for computers.

He started working as a programmer in the computer laboratory at Berkeley
in the early 1970's and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer
Club, an informal group of engineers, programmers, experimenters and
entrepreneurs that ultimately spun off dozens of companies that formed the
core of the personal computer industry in the 1970's.

Initially, most personal computers were sold as kits. Mr. Morrow formed
Microstuf, a company in Berkeley, Calif., to sell expansion cards and
other computer add-on products to the first generation of personal
computer enthusiasts. He would later change the name of the company, first
to Thinker Toys and later to Morrow Designs.

A self-taught computer designer, Mr. Morrow was involved in the efforts to
create and standardize the S100 bus, a hardware design that made it
possible for early PC makers to share expansion cards.

Morrow Designs thrived when the personal computer became an important tool
for small businesses. The first machines ran the Digital Research CP/M
operating system. Later, Mr. Morrow introduced a portable computer
intended to compete head-to-head with the popular Osborne 1 computer. The
Morrow machine matched the Osborne's $1,795 price but offered more bundled
software.

Mr. Morrow was well known for his enthusiasm and his sense of humor within
the computer industry. Lee Felsenstein, who was one of the original
members of the Homebrew club and the designer of the Osborne 1, recalled
that Mr. Morrow was usually dressed in jeans and tennis shoes.

When I.B.M. began to dominate the PC market, Mr. Morrow was forced to
shift to the industry standard. In 1985, his company introduced a popular
portable design known as the Pivot and sold the design to Zenith Data
Systems. But with the industry becoming increasingly dominated by large
electronics companies, Morrow Designs filed for bankruptcy in 1986.

In recent years, Mr. Morrow spent his time maintaining a collection of
70,000 78-r.p.m. recordings, with much of the collection being dance and
jazz music of the 1920's and 1930's. He had developed an advanced
electronic system for digitizing and remastering the recordings and he was
distributing them on compact disc on his own label, the Old Masters.

He is survived by his wife, Michiko Jean, of San Mateo; two sons, John, of
San Mateo, and William, of New York; and a daughter, Kelly, of San Jose,
Calif.

Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company
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   "When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra
   "Always make new mistakes" -- Esther Dyson
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   "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic"
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                          John F. McMullen
                 johnmac () acm org johnmac () cyberspace org
              ICQ: 4368412 AIM & Yahoo Messenger: johnmac13
                  http://www.westnet.com/~observer


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