American 6′ 5″ tall entrepreneur, government official and philanthropist. Packard became a leader in business management and electronic and computer technology in the Silicon Valley of California. With his partner from Stanford University, William Hewlett, they founded Hewlett-Packard with $538.00 in a Palo Alto garage in 1939. The company became a leader in the electronic instruments and test equipment after WW II. In the early 1970s, Hewlett-Packard introduced the popular electronic calculator. As the CEO since 1964, Packard conducted the day-to day business affairs of the company and maintained a top position as a computer business supplier. He wrote his autobiography in 1995, “The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company.” In 1995, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation had a net asset of $ 2.3 billion. In the same year $116 million was distributed to more than 700 recipients such as the Monterey Bay Aquarium, Stanford University, and the Palo Alto Children’s Hospital.
Packard’s mother was a high school teacher and his father was a lawyer. In grade school, he dreamed of becoming an engineer. His father was disappointed that his young son did not want to follow his path into law. At Stanford University, Packard studied electrical engineering and befriended fellow classmate William Hewlett during their freshman year. After graduation in 1936, Packard went to work for General Electric for two years. His mentor, Professor Fred Terman awarded Packard a fellowship for graduate work at Stanford and Hewlett returned to the campus. Terman encouraged the two men to open their own business. In the garage of a modest two-story house that Packard and his wife rented in 1939, Hewlett and Packard created their first product, an audio oscillator. One of their first customers to purchase the audio oscillator was Walt Disney Studios. They used the device in making the film, “Fantasia.” By the end of 1939, Hewlett-Packard made a $1,539 profit on sales.
Packard’s management style was influential on many American businesses. He was admired for his hands-on approach in his innovative management practice. He spent as much time wandering the halls of the company getting to know his employees as he did in creating the company’s commercial success. He was president of Hewlett-Packard from 1947-1964 and the company’s CEO in 1964. In 1969, he left Palo Alto to be President Nixon’s Deputy Secretary of Defense until 1971. Returning to the company and in the ’70s and ’80s he made Hewlett-Packard laser printers, the dominant product in the computer supplier business. In 1990, he returned to an active role in the company to head off layoffs and losses that plagued other large computer companies like IBM. He retired as chairman of Hewlett-Packard in 1993.
Packard met his wife Lucile at her sorority dining room at Stanford University, while he was waiting table. They married in 1936 and had one son and three daughters. He preferred to live a simple life despite the wealth from his business. They lived in a Los Altos Hills property surrounded by an apricot orchard. He shunned the luxuries that he could have had as CEO of Hewlett-Packard.
An active member of the Republican party, Packard was a member of President Ronald Reagan’s Blue Ribbon Commission of Defense Management in 1985 and 1986.
He died on 3/26/1996 from pneumonia at the age of 83 at Stanford University hospital in Palo Alto.
Link to Wikipedia biography