His name is Ed Roberts and he started a small company in Albuquerque to develop, build, and sell Heathkit (a name for we more mature) style build-it-yourself electronic devices such as test instruments. He went on to develop a build-it-yourself microcomputer called the Altair. This development attracted a young Harvard student named Bill Gates and his friend, Paul Allen. They went to Albuquerque, met Ed Roberts -- and became his programming staff. Later they went on to found Microsoft Corporation -- after the cut their teeth at MITS.
Shortly after that, I joined MITS and was responsible for building a network of independent Manufacturer's Sales Representatives throughout the western states and for presenting Microcomputer Seminars to the many people who were hungering to know more about this new thing called microprocessors.
One of the men I signed to sell the Altair in Northern California was Paul Terrell. At that time, there was one computer store in the world -- a mom and pop store in Los Angeles. Paul opened the second computer store, the Byte Shop -- and from there, he built the first franchise retail computer store chain, the Byte Shops. At his first Byte Shop in Mountain View, California, Paul met and, to some degree, influenced Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who went on to found Apple Computer.
And, all of this grew from the entrepreneurial mind of Ed Roberts -- whom virtually no one knows. Some years later, Ed sold the rights to the Altair microcomputer and followed his main dream -- to become a medical doctor. While Bill Gates and Paul Allen went on to found Microsoft -- Ed Roberts went on to become Dr. Ed Roberts, family doctor. Each fulfilled his dream.
And because of these men, especially Ed Roberts -- I am able to sit at my personal computer in my home office and send you e-mails, post messages such as this on the Religion Forum, and devour massive amounts of information via internet. We all owe a great deal of thanks to this man virtually no one knew.
Below is the my post in the Ed Roberts Obit Guest Book:
My sincere condolence to the family of Ed Roberts. My name is Bill Gray and I worked for Ed at MITS in the mid-1970s. To me, he was the entrepreneur who saw a niche in the microcomputer market no one else noticed -- the old Heathkit build-it-yourself approach -- grabbed the ball and ran with it; scoring the winning touchdown.
This was a time before the PC computers, before the Apple computer, before disk operating systems, before CRT displays, and all the nice little gadgets we all take for granted today. Yet, this was a time when many people wanted to know more about this amazing little device called the microprocessor. And, Ed Roberts help satisfy that hunger people had to know more about the microprocessors, microcomputers, and how they could use them.
Many people may not realize that Ed Roberts was very instrumental in the startup of the Retail Computers stores we see in all communities today. And, his product influence was there for the beginning of Apple Computer.
Ed Roberts came up with the idea to outfit a large luxury RV as a computer showroom and sent it around the country giving Microcomputer Seminars. That year, he drove the RV right into the Anaheim Convention Center during the Fall Joint Computer Conference and parked it in the MITS booth. As a matter of fact, it became the MITS booth. And, it created excitement.
At that time, there was only one computer store; a mom and pop store in Los Angeles. These Microcomputer Seminars, which were Ed's brainchild were a big hit. I would fly to different cities, meet the Traveling RV Computer Showroom -- and we would present Seminars in local hotels.
During one eventful week, I presented two nights of Microcomputer Seminars at the Hyatt Hotel in Palo Alto, where I met an old friend, Paul Terrell. Paul was so impressed with the large audiences we had -- that he signed up to sell the Altair computers in Northern California. A month later, Paul opened the the Byte Shop computer store in Mountain View, California, to sell the Altair in a retail and hobby environment. Then, a short time later, he opened a second store in Palo Alto with his brother, then another in Oregon with another brother -- eventually building the first franchise computer store chain, the Byte Shops, into 250 stores nationwide.
His store in Mountain View became a focal point for computer hobbyists and Paul's involvement in a local hobby computer club helped to sell his Altair products. Through this connection, he met Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs -- and we know they went on to found Apple Computer.
In the 1970s, the microprocessor exploded on the scene -- and Ed Roberts, with his entrepreneurial skills helped turn this into the tsunami which has become the PC and Apple flood of computers in every home and office around the world. As I said, few people know the extent of Ed Robert's influence in starting the computer phenomenon we take for granted today.
Ed Roberts' name should be up there in the history books with all the giants who have created the computer society we have today -- for his entrepreneurial spirit and drive played a large role in this societal phenomenon. Talk to folks today and ask them if they know Ed Roberts -- and virtually all would say no. Tell them that he was instrumental in putting those computers into their homes and offices -- and they will be shocked. Ed Roberts is most certainly the most unsung hero of our computer society today.
Thank you, Ed. And, thank you for allowing me to be a small cog in that movement of the 1970s computer tsunami you started.
Once again, my sincere condolence to all of Ed Roberts' family and friend.
May God bless and comfort you in your loss,
Bill Gray
Southern California
billdory@pacbell.net
Have you ever thought about how much our lives are touched in so many ways -- by people we do not even know exists? Now, you know that one man, Ed Roberts, has touched your life.
This is a link to the condolence message, "Remembering Ed Roberts," posted jointly by Bill Gates and Paul Allen:
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill Gray
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