Burrell Smith
From Free net encyclopedia
Burrell Smith is an engineer who, while working at Apple Computer, designed the digital board for the original Macintosh. He was Apple employee #282, and was hired February, 1979, initially as a service technician.
Burrell was first brought into the company as the person who fixes broken Apple ][s that home owners have broken, one day at Apple Computer he put a manual on Andy Hertzfeld desk's, when Andy opened it he was amazed at how well Burrell explained the digital board of the Apple][, at first Andy didn't know who had left the handwritten manual on his desk but a little bit later that day, a shy Burrell Smith walked into his cubical and asked if he had gotten the manual that he had left him, Andy told him he did.
After this a friend of Andy's asked if he would work on a new computer that he wanted made, Andy replied that he knew someone that was a pretty good engineer that could help in making his computer. At this time Burrell was still working as a lower service technician, but this was the start of the better of his career at Apple. He started on the computer that we know as Macintosh.
Even though he was on this project he began to get irritated that he wasn't getting promoted to a full on engineer, he noticed that other people on the team had moustaches, so he told his theory to Andy that if he grew a moustache he would get the promotion, so one month after he told his theory he declared his moustache fully grown, and sure enough later that day he was called and promoted as a full on engineer.
Because of internal politics, he left the company before releasing Apple's "Turbo Mac" design platform, which included an internal hard drive and a simplified chipset.
He was a co-founder of Radius Corp.
He is retired and living in Palo Alto.
Trivia
Grew a moustache while working at Apple solely to increase his chances of promotion. Folklore.org: "It's The Moustache That Matters"
Often amused members of the Macintosh development team with impersonations of other employees (including Jef Raskin). Folklore.org: "I Invented Burrell"
According to "The Second Coming of Steve Jobs" by Alan Deutschman, Steve Jobs filed for a temporary restraining order against Burrell. Terms were to limit him from coming within 100 yards of the Jobs' family, nanny, car, and office. This was done in response to reports of Burrell throwing rocks and cherry bombs at Steve Jobs' house and car.
External links
- Folklore.org — A collection of first-hand accounts of the early days of the Macintosh.