Harlan Anderson (October 15, 1929 - January 30, 2019) was an American engineer and entrepreneur, best known as the co-founder of

Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC ), using the trademark Digital, was a major American company in the computer industry from the 1960s to the 1990s. The company was co-founded by Ken Olsen and Harlan Anderson in 1957. Olsen was president un ...

(DEC), which later became the second largest computer company in the world. Other notable entities that Anderson has been associated with include

Lincoln Laboratory The MIT Lincoln Laboratory, located in Lexington, Massachusetts, is a United States Department of Defense federally funded research and development center chartered to apply advanced technology to problems of national security. Research and de ...

at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, where he was a member of the technical staff. He served as Director of Technology for

Time, Inc. Time Inc. was an American worldwide mass media corporation founded on November 28, 1922, by Henry Luce and Briton Hadden and based in New York City. It owned and published over 100 magazine brands, including its namesake ''Time'', ''Sports Illu ...

, where he spearheaded their evaluation of the future of the printed word during the explosion of television, long before the Internet existed. Anderson participated in early stage financing for over 20 small technology companies. He was a trustee of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) for 16 years. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois, and a trustee of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Anderson was the author of the autobiography entitled, ''Learn, Earn & Return: My Life as a Computer Pioneer''.

Education

Anderson earned both a B.S. and M.S. in Physics from the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

in the early 1950s, where he became interested in computers. He took programming courses for the

ILLIAC I The ILLIAC I (Illinois Automatic Computer), a pioneering computer in the ILLIAC series of computers built in 1952 by the University of Illinois, was the first computer built and owned entirely by a United States educational institution. Compute ...

computer, which was under construction at this time. The courses were taught by the computer pioneer, David Wheeler of the

University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. it employed 35 academic staff, 25 support staff, 35 affiliated research staff, and about 15 ...

. He received a B.S. degree in

Engineering Physics Engineering physics, or engineering science, refers to the study of the combined disciplines of physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, particularly computer, nuclear, electrical, electronic, aerospace, materials or mechanical en ...

and a Masters in

Physics Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...

in 1951 and 1952 respectively., Board of Trustees, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA.

Digital Equipment Corporation

In 1957, Anderson and Ken Olsen, his boss at Lincoln Laboratory, decided to start their own firm. They approached

American Research and Development Corporation American Research and Development Corporation (ARDC) was a venture capital and private equity firm founded in 1946 by Georges Doriot, Ralph Flanders, Merrill Griswold, and Karl Compton. ARDC is credited with the first major venture capital ...

, an early venture capital firm, which had been founded by

Georges Doriot Georges Frédéric Doriot (September 24, 1899 – June 1987) was a French-American known for his prolific careers in military, academics, business and education. An émigré from France, Doriot became a professor of Industrial Management at Har ...

, and founded Digital Equipment Corporation after receiving $70,000 for a 70% share. They rented space in what had been a woolen mill building in

Maynard, Massachusetts Maynard is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is located 22 miles west of Boston, in the MetroWest and Greater Boston region of Massachusetts and borders Acton, Concord, Stow and Sudbury. The town's population ...

. Anderson was employee #2. He departed DEC in 1966 after a dispute with Olsen about the management structure of the company.

References

External links

The Demise of Digital Equipment Corporation: What made the difference at DEC?

The Mouse That Roared: PDP-1 Celebration Event
panel, 15 May 2006.

Boston Globe, October 22, 2009
"A Personal Take on the Rise and Fall of Digital"
Boston Globe, October 26, 2009 1929 births 2019 deaths Digital Equipment Corporation people 21st-century American engineers Grainger College of Engineering alumni MIT Lincoln Laboratory people {{US-compu-bio-stub