Bill Hewlett (1913-2001)/Dave Packard (1912-1996)

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Travelogue of Hewlett and Packard page 3 by Julie Newdoll

August 10: Julie gets a call from Mark Laubach, Chief Engineer at KFJC, Foothill College. He was listening to the Ann Arbor radio show while Julie was being interviewed. He heard that H and P were stranded on Mount Hamilton, so he looked up the web site later. Upon discovering that H and P had come down from Lick and were stranded at a coffee shop, he promptly went to fetch them. Julie was on her way there to repair them, as they were no longer sending a signal (that darn Boost Mobile phone bug again). Thank goodness Mark got there first and contacted her, so all was well and Julie got to take her kids to the park, instead. Mark made a nice presentation of his story. All black text below is Mark's. BIG pictures now when you click on the small ones.

My Day with Bill & Dave

An Un-authorized story by
Mark Laubach
8/11/2006


Prologue
On Wednesday, 9th 2006, I was listening to Ann Arbor on KFJC interviewing Julie Newdoll about the Silicon [gnome] HitchHiker project for ZeroOne in San Jose. www.ylem.org
• Ann Arbor and I first met back in 1988 when we both worked at HP
• I perked up as Bill and Dave were somewhere up a Lick Observatory, but their GPS reporting had stopped due to a glitch.
Since I knew something about un-glitching, I decided to go help. I found Bill & Dave in Willow Glen and brought them to my garage
Good thing I had my HP stethoscope, I was able to help Mario diagnose the problem
After a little bit of work, everything was back working again
Now that they were back up, I invited them over for lunch. BBQ seemed like the way to go. These guys really know how to flip a mean burger.
After food, I told them about my history at HP

We reminisced quite a lot that evening
While we were talking, I spaced for a little bit

You know, not so long ago and not so far away…..

Bill & Dave *were* the Jedi Masters of the Silicon Valley

May the HP Way be with you….
But also, they were just Bill & Dave, founders of HP, and the best cooks of electronics and instrumentation products in the world

(also, the burgers were excellent)
They were interested in my stories about being the Chief Engineer at KFJC 89.7 FM, so I took them on a trip.

From KFJC’s Fortress of Solitude, we were able to view all of the Silicon Valley they helped to create
Dave’s eyes were better than mine, he thinks he picked out the roof of HP Labs
From there, we went down to KFJC studios, at Foothill College
They agreed to an interview. These guys are great talkers!

   But Doh!, I forgot
to press the record button
I offered these guys some take home gifts. Dave liked the Radio Devil flying disc. Bill liked the hat and a sticker

Well, it was time to take these two back to HP
1501 Page Mill Road was where HP grew up big

Their offices are still there
Here they are outside 3000 Hanover,
HP Corporate Headquarters,
in Palo Alto

   Thanks for everything you did.

   Be seeing you.
Epilogue

I turned Bill & Dave over to Julie Newdoll in the parking lot in front of 3000 Hanover. HP Corporate Headquarters just after 12 Noon on August 11th.

The official contact folks at HP declined to be involved in the “public” remembrance of Bill and Dave by the www.ylem.org tribute to the creators of Silicon Valley, for ZeroOne, San Jose, 2006. As an HP Alumni, I’m glad I was able to participate.

It saddened me that HP refused to even let Hewlett and Packard into their lobby! If only they took a look at the great adventures that H and P have had this last week, and what joy they brought to the hearts of many Silicon Valley people, perhaps they would change their mind.

August 17: I thought this was the last entry for the H and P adventure. I was wrong. The adventures of Hewlett and Packard are continued on the next page.


Go to HP Travelogue page 1 2 3 4

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