William Hewlett

William Reddington Hewlett was the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). He was born on May 20, 1913 in Ann Arbor, Michigan and moved to San Francisco, California at the age of 3 years. A son of a professor in medicine at the University of Michigan and later, at Stanford University. William "Bill" Hewlett attended Lowell High School and was accepted at Stanford University as a favor for his late father, Albion Hewlett, who had died prematurely of a brain tumor in 1925. The young Hewlett received a B.A. in 1934 and an electrical engineering degree in 1939: He received his master's degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1936. He was a member of the Kappa Sigma Fraternity during his time at Stanford and MIT. In 1936, Hewlett attended classes taught by Fred Terman, who is also considered as one of the founders of the Silicon valley. He met partner Dave Packard while both were in undergraduate school at Stanford.In August of 1937 Hewlett and Packard began discussing forming a company. While in graduate school Hewlett developed the design for the product that later launched the Hewlett Packard Company(HP)- the model HP200A Audio Oscillator. On January 1, 1939, Hewlett-Packard Company is formally incorporated and in the same year he married Flora Lamson, and the couple eventually had five children. He served as an army officer during the World War II and was named vice-president of the newly established Hewlett-Packard upon his return to civilian life. He became president of HP from 1964 to 1977 and served as CEO from 1968 to 1978, he was succeeded by John A. Young. He remained of the executive committee until 1983 and then served as vice chairman of the board until 1987. In 1966, he and his wife founded the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.On January 12, 2001, William Hewlett died because of a heart failure.