[Info-vax] Ken Olsen

[Neil Rieck]

On Feb 9, 3:39 pm, brendan welch <w1... at uml.edu> wrote:
> On 2/9/2011 11:04 AM, JF Mezei wrote:> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>
> >> Is there any evidence the HP knows who Ken Olson was???  IIRC it was
> >> Compaq that bought DEC.  HP's acquisition of Compaq came a year or two
> >> later.
>
> > Even if HP had not inherited what was left of DEC, as one of the older
> > computer firms, it should have sent a message of condolenceses and
> > marked how much of a mark Mr Olsen had left in the computer industry etc
> > etc.
>
> I understand that when Ken Olsen worked at Lincoln Lab, before founding
> DEC, he lived in my town (Bedford, Massachusetts).  After his death, I
> mentioned this by email to the staff of the local town paper.  They were
> quite surprised (probably because they had not been born until many
> years later.)
>
> In a trivial off-topic, I had always wondered in exactly what house he
> did live.
> (I know there are more important things in this world).  A few months
> ago, here on COV, there was one of those postings which seem to explode.
> It was about the history of VMS, as I recall, and generated a tremendous
> number of spirited replies.  It inspired me to again look into the
> matter.  I did this first while walking the dog, and inquiring of the
> daughter of the woman who in those days was the leading real estate
> person; she did not know, and has not got back to me.   Then, because I
> have to be in the town library 3 days a week, I inquired about that
> aspect of the town history.  It turns out I would have to pick a certain
> year (which only now do I realize would be near 1957) and then search
> through a list of voters, street by street.  I chose not to use my time
> that way, even though I might find out that someone I have known for
> years lives in that very house.

I didn't know he once lived in Bedford. In the 1980s I spent a few
months at a DEC training facility in Bedford (20 Crosby Drive) and
always wondered how they found that place. It consisted of multiple
buildings stuck in the Massachusetts woods connected by underground
tunnels. Ah, the memories.

NSR