At Stanford, he was simply, "Dave," but to the world he was David Packard, leader of Hewlett-Packard Company and progenitor of the innovative and entrepreneurial spirit that have come to define the Stanford School of Engineering.

Early on, David Packard had a passion for ham radio. Legendary School of Engineering Dean Fred Terman spotted Packard's zeal and, emboldened by Packard's stellar academic record, took the rare step and allowed the star undergraduate into a graduate-level radio engineering class. Six years later, Packard was back, this time as a graduate student when Terman again prevailed upon him - and friend William Hewlett - to start an electronics company. The name "Hewlett-Packard Company" was determined by the fate of a coin flip.

In a garage in Palo Alto in 1939, with a grand total of $538 of capital (less than $10,000 in today's dollars), the two engineers set to work. Soon, they had produced their first sound oscillator, which became a best-seller after Disney used them in the making of "Fantasia."

Packard's leadership at HP has become legendary in American business and technology lore - he served as president of HP from 1947 to 1964 and then CEO until 1969, leaving only when his nation called him to serve as Deputy Secretary of Defense under President Richard Nixon. He returned to HP in 1971 and served as Chairman until 1993.

David Packard died in 1996, leaving behind a legacy of engineering leadership and a well-funded philanthropic foundation that yielded the Monterey Bay Marine Aquarium among other notable gifts.

In addition to his philanthropy, Packard was a fellow of the IEEE, a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and a lifetime member of the Instrument Society of America. He also was a co-founder and past chairman of the American Electronics Association.

AB 1934 General Engineering

ENG 1939 Electrical Engineering

1912-1996