[Dixielandjazz] George Morrow obituary

[Richard Broadie]

Thanks for the George Morrow obituary Sheik.  I met Mr. Morrow at an Audio
Engineering Society convention in San Francisco around 1992.   (I believe
Ray Dolby introduced us.)  George was interested in my mono to stereo
technologies and we had a nice lunch together, mostly discussing his record
collection and how best to best digitalize the old 78s.  We planned to keep
in touch but never did, much to my regret.
Sorry to learn of his demise.   She seemed to be a very nice man.  His
intelligence was obvious and very much appreciated.  Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: "David W. Littlefield" <dwlit at cpcug.org>
To: <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 6:44 AM
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] George Morrow obituary


> Hi All. Here's one of those "ya never know who's gonna like OKOM" items.
> >From the NY Times. The next to last paragraph states the OKOM-relevance.
>
> --Sheik
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> George Morrow, a Personal Computer Visionary, Dies at 69
>
> By JOHN MARKOFF
>
> eorge Morrow, a mathematician and programmer who was a member of a group
of
> unorthodox hobbyists who were instrumental in creating the personal
> computer industry, died at his home in San Mateo, Calif., on Wednesday.
>
> He was 69 and had suffered from aplastic anemia for the last year, his
wife
> said.
>
> Mr. Morrow was born in Detroit. He dropped out of high school, but at the
> age of 28 decided to return to school and received a bachelor's degree in
> physics from Stanford University and a master's degree in mathematics from
> the University of Oklahoma. He entered a Ph.D. program in mathematics at
> the University of California at Berkeley, but was sidetracked by his
> passion for computers.
>
> He started working as a programmer in the computer laboratory at Berkeley
> in the early 1970's and began attending meetings of the Homebrew Computer
> Club, an informal group of engineers, programmers, experimenters and
> entrepreneurs that ultimately spun off dozens of companies that formed the
> core of the personal computer industry in the 1970's.
>
> Initially, most personal computers were sold as kits. Mr. Morrow formed
> Microstuf, a company in Berkeley, Calif., to sell expansion cards and
other
> computer add-on products to the first generation of personal computer
> enthusiasts. He would later change the name of the company, first to
> Thinker Toys and later to Morrow Designs.
>
> A self-taught computer designer, Mr. Morrow was involved in the efforts to
> create and standardize the S100 bus, a hardware design that made it
> possible for early PC makers to share expansion cards.
>
> Morrow Designs thrived when the personal computer became an important tool
> for small businesses. The first machines ran the Digital Research CP/M
> operating system. Later, Mr. Morrow introduced a portable computer
intended
> to compete head-to-head with the popular Osborne 1 computer. The Morrow
> machine matched the Osborne's $1,795 price but offered more bundled
software.
>
> Mr. Morrow was well known for his enthusiasm and his sense of humor within
> the computer industry. Lee Felsenstein, who was one of the original
members
> of the Homebrew club and the designer of the Osborne 1, recalled that Mr.
> Morrow was usually dressed in jeans and tennis shoes.
>
> When I.B.M. began to dominate the PC market, Mr. Morrow was forced to
shift
> to the industry standard. In 1985, his company introduced a popular
> portable design known as the Pivot and sold the design to Zenith Data
> Systems. But with the industry becoming increasingly dominated by large
> electronics companies, Morrow Designs filed for bankruptcy in 1986.
>
> In recent years, Mr. Morrow spent his time maintaining a collection of
> 70,000 78-r.p.m. recordings, with much of the collection being dance and
> jazz music of the 1920's and 1930's. He had developed an advanced
> electronic system for digitizing and remastering the recordings and he was
> distributing them on compact disc on his own label, the Old Masters.
>
> He is survived by his wife, Michiko Jean, of San Mateo; two sons, John, of
> San Mateo, and William, of New York; and a daughter, Kelly, of San Jose,
Calif.
>
> _______________________________________________
> Dixielandjazz mailing list
> Dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com
> http://ml.islandnet.com/mailman/listinfo/dixielandjazz
>