| Achievement
Developed
the IBM PC with a team of 12 other engineers (a/o.: Dr. Glenn S. Dardick)
Biography
The
personal computer enjoys the ubiquity it does because of one man: Philip
"Don" Estridge. An IBM employee since 1959, Estridge headed
up the skunk works in Boca Raton, Fl., that in 1981 launched the IBM
PC. Estridge made the decision—revolutionary for that time and
place—that the machine would be made from off-the-shelf, easily
obtainable parts and that the design specification would be made public.
Estridge and his wife Mary Ann died in the Aug. 2, 1985, in the crash
of a Delta Airlines L-1011, which was hit by wind shear while landing
at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport.
Estridge's
longtime friend, neighbor and coworker Jan Winston, now retired but
still consulting with IBM, talked to CIO about the colleague he still
misses.
Don and I lived
next door to each other in Boca Raton. It was a sleepy town in those
days, not sophisticated like it is today. Then, it was only old people
and IBM employees. You could stand outside watching the kids play and
have a departmental meeting. Our families were very close well before
the PC project started; he and I had worked together on the Series 1
project, IBM's first minicomputer. Because we had different responsibilities,
we were often in contention on that project, but there was no stress
in our friendship.
Don was very humane, with a wonderful sense of humor and a charming
personality. He combined a manic drive with tremendous respect for his
people, recognizing all that they were sacrificing during the PC project.
When the PC took off, it was like a rocket ride, and he did a wonderful
job of exerting executive leadership. And he was a technically competent
visionary. Don had a very broad view of where computer business was
going technically as well as the importance of computers to the economy
and to society as a whole.
Would the world today surprise him? Its magnitude would. Our first sales
projections estimated selling 250,000 units over three years. The executives
wondered what we were smoking because the best-selling IBM computer
had sold only 25,000 over three to five years. We always said to ourselves
that the technology would grow by leaps and bounds because of applications
like VisiCalc. We knew there was going to be e-mail too. But the broad
acceptance of the computer, the way it embedded itself in our everyday
lives and the explosion of the Internet, is an order of magnitude beyond
what we were thinking about in the early '80s(1)
Chronology
1937
June 23, Born in Jacksonville,
Florida USA. His father was a professional photographer.
1942-1951
Attended St. Paul's
School from Kindergarten through eight grade; Jacksonville, Florida, USA(12)
1951-1955
Graduated from Kenny
High school Jacksonville, Florida, USA(12)
1958
May Ann Estridge
courtesy Carol Lambert |
Married
to Mary Ann Hellier on September 13th, from this marriage three
children were born: Patricia Ann, Mary Evelyn and Sandra Marie.(12) |
1959
Completed a BS in
electrical engineering at the University of Florida
Estridge joined IBM as a junior engineer in Kingston New York and held
positions in the Federal Systems Division, participating in the construction
of SAGE(11)
1963
Moved to Washington.
Working on the manned and unmanned programming support for NASA /Goddard
Space Flight Center
1969
Estridge moved to
Boca Raton, Florida, USA. Joined the General Systems Division and from
1975 - 1979 he was series/1- a mini computer - programming manager
1979
Had responsibility
for the development of a Series/1 integrated product until 1980
1980
Becomes manager of
Entry Level Systems - Small system in Boca Raton, Florida USA. Responsible
for the development of small microprocessor-based systems for 'tiny' business
and personal use.
At the end of
1980, IBM decided to truly compete in the rapidly growing low-cost personal
computer market. The company established what was then called the Entry
Systems Division, located in Boca Raton, Florida, to develop the new
system. This small group consisted of 12 engineers and designers under
the direction of Don Estridge; the team's chief designer was Lewis Eggebrecht.
The division developed IBM's first real PC. (IBM considered the 5100
system, developed in 1975, to be an intelligent programmable terminal
rather than a genuine computer, even though it truly was a computer.).
Nearly all these engineers had been moved to the new division from the
System/23 DataMaster project, which in 1980 introduced a small office
computer system that was the closest predecessor to the IBM PC. (3)
1981
January - Estridge's
organization has grown from 12 to 135 people
July - Appointed director
Entry Systems Business in July and responsible for the IBM Personal Computer
It struck me
that what the company really needs today is a good skunk works. IBM's
Don Estridge started one in 1981 in Boca Raton, Fl., in an old, leaky-roofed
warehouse with malfunctioning air-conditioning. Eighteen months later,
the PC was ready for the market. (4)
To invent the IBM PC, IBM created three secret research teams who competed
against each other. The winner was the research team headed by Philip
"Don" Estridge in Boca Raton, Florida. His team examined everything
created by the other microcomputer companies (Apple, Radio Shack, Commodore,
etc.) and combined their best ideas, to produce a relatively low-cost
computer.
Don's team developed
the IBM PC secretly. IBM didn't announce it to the public until August
12, 1981.(2)
"What we
discovered was that the way people responded emotionally to PC's was
more important than what the computer actually did." -Don Estridge.
Because IBM introduced
the PC it gave this machine respectability ("stamp of approval").
Thus making it possible to market the machine also to small businesses.
1982
January - Appointed
division director Entry Systems Business Unit
March - System Products
Division vice president and general manager Entry Systems.
1983
August - President
of the newly formed Entry Systems Division
Apple Computer's
Steve Jobs offers IBM's Don Estridge the position of president of Apple
Computer, for US$1 million per year, US$1 million signing bonus, and
US$2 million to buy a house. Don Estridge turns it down. (13)
1984
January - IBM vice
president
August - Estridge's
organization has now 9.500 people on its pay roll
Nearly a million PC
's have been sold
1985
March - IBM vice president,
manufacturing
August 2, died in
a plane crash near Dallas, Texas USA together with his wife Mary Ann.(13)
Don Estridge died
in a plane crash on August 2, 1985 The DC10 in which he traveled crashed
because of a "wind shear". Others say because of a crashed computer
system at flight control.
By all rights,
the first IBM personal computer fair, held in San Francisco over the
weekend of Aug. 26-28, ought to have been a wildly joyful celebration
honoring Philip D. Estridge, president of IBM's Entry Systems Division.
Estridge, after all, is the man who brought to market the IBM PC, a
product that has shattered all sales records(10)and
won over the marketplace as no other computer ever has. Yet, listen
to Don Estridge, as he addressed a session of software designers and
hardware vendors about the PC:
"There's a question that keeps coming up, like waves on the beach:
'What do I use one for?'"(6)
Honors
and Awards
none
Bibliography
Courtesy
IBM archives, Carol Lambert
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