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William R. (Bill) Hewlett, the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard (HP), was first and foremost an engineer, and it showed in his uncompromising service to the engineering community.
Born on May 20, 1913, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he attended Stanford University in California and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1934. During his undergraduate days at Stanford, Hewlett met and became friends with David Packard, an engineering classmate. He received a master's degree in electrical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1936 and the degree of Engineer from Stanford University in 1939.
In 1939, Hewlett and Packard formed a partnership and commenced operations in Hewlett's garage with $538 in capital. The name of the company, Hewlett-Packard, could just as easily have been Packard-Hewlett, as it was decided by a coin toss, and neither man seemed to mind either way.
The first product created by the newly formed HP, was a resistance-capacitance audio oscillator, designed and developed by Hewlett when he was in graduate school. The product was based on the newly developed principle of negative feedback and attracted among its early buyers another innovator - Walt Disney - who used eight of the audio oscillators in the production of Fantasia.
HP was always a first class operation, as Hewlett and Packard treated their employees in the same elegant way that they designed their products. Hewlett was in charge of technical innovations while Packard concentrated on managing the company.
HP maintained a flat organizational chart, recognizing the achievements of individual employees and instituting profit sharing with employees the year it was founded. HP management was innovative, with bonuses to non-managers, and a "management by walking around" style, features that are found in efficiently run companies throughout the world.
Hewlett served as an Army officer during World War II. He was a staff member of the Army's Chief Signal Officer and later headed the electronics division of the New Development Division of the War Department Special Staff. During his latter tour Hewlett was part of a special U.S. team that inspected Japanese industry immediately after the war. In 1947, shortly after he returned to Palo Alto, Hewlett was named vice president of HP. He was elected executive vice president of HP in 1957.
Hewlett contributed to the advancement of numerous electronics industry organizations. From 1950-57 he was on the board of directors of the Institute of Radio Engineers - now the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) - and served as president of that institute in 1954. Hewlett also played a key role in the development of the Western Electronic Manufacturers Association, now called the American Electronics Association.
Hewlett had a strong interest in education and medicine. He was a trustee of Mills College in Oakland, Calif. from 1958 to 1968, as board president of the Palo Alto-Stanford Hospital Center (now Stanford Medical Center) from 1956 to 1958 and as a director from 1958-1962. Hewlett was a trustee of Stanford University from 1963 to 1974, and was also a member of the San Francisco regional panel of the Commission on White House Fellows from 1969 to 1970. He was a director of the Kaiser Foundation Hospital and Health Plan from 1972 to 1978, and the Drug Abuse Council in Washington, D.C., from 1972 to 1974.
With exception for his years of service, Hewlett was involved actively involved in the management of HP until 1987. He was made president of HP in 1964 and CEO in 1969. He resigned as president of HP in 1977 and retired as chief executive officer in 1978. He served as chairman of HP's executive committee until 1983, the same year that President Ronald Reagan awarded him the National Medal of Science, the nation's highest scientific honor.
Hewlett became vice chairman of the HP board of directors in 1983 and in 1987 he was named director emeritus, serving in that position until he died on Jan. 12, 2001, at the age of 87.
An honorary trustee of the California Academy of Sciences, Hewlett was also a member of the National Academy of Engineering, the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was a trustee emeritus of the Carnegie Institution of Washington and held numerous honorary degrees from American colleges and universities.
Hewlett loved the outdoors. He was a part-time botanist, an accomplished mountain climber, fisherman and skier. He also maintained various ranching and cattle-raising operations in California and Idaho. His most lasting legacy was not HP, but rather the Foundation that he established in 1966 with his wife Flora and their eldest son, Walter. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants to improve the quality of life of people at home and around the world ever since.
Hewlett served as chairman of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 1966 to 1994 and served as chairman emeritus of the Foundation until his death. One of the nation's largest Foundations with over $5 billion in assets, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation supports education, the environment, performing arts, population studies, conflict resolution, and U.S.-Latin American relations. In addition, the Foundation has initiatives supporting neighborhood improvement, philanthropy, and global affairs.
Over the past few years, the Foundation has been able to steadily increase the total amount of its gifts and grants. In 2002 grants and gifts totaled $195,221,736 and 2003 gifts and grants were estimated at $254,320,000 to 707 organizations.
Despite his wealth Hewlett never showed much interest in being a celebrity. Throughout his life he remained, at heart, an engineer who believed you should "never stifle a generous impulse."
For more information about the The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation please visit:
http://www.hewlett.org
For more information about Hewlett Packard:
http://www.hp.com/
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