>>> WHO IS BOB TAYLOR?
Robert W Taylor (1932–2017) is one of the unsung heroes of the history of computing. Not because he invented anything himself, but because he oversaw several key developments. Despite having no formal training in computing, he was involved in many significant technological innovations.
As NASA’s manager of funding for manned flight control systems, flight displays, and simulation technology, he funded the world’s first mice. As director of ARPA’s Information Processing Techniques Office 1965– 1969, he backed or began many of the era’s most important advances in computer science, including the setting up of ARPANET in 1969, the beginnings of what would grow into the internet.
He started Xerox PARC in 1970 and ran it until 1983, during which time it developed numerous groundbreaking technologies: laser printing (which, by itself, he noted more than repaid Xerox’s investment in PARC); the Bravo word processor, which PARC member Charles Simonyi took to Microsoft and evolved into Word; and Ethernet networking, which Bob Metcalfe commercialized by founding 3Com.