Jack Tramiel
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| Jack Tramiel | |
| Born | Idek Trzmiel December 13, 1928  Łódź, Poland |
|---|---|
| Known for | Commodore founder; Atari Corp. CEO |
| Spouse | Helen (1947-present) |
| Children | 3 |
Jack Tramiel (born December 13, 1928[1]) is a businessman, famous for founding Commodore International, manufacturer of the Commodore PET, Commodore 64, and Commodore Amiga home computers, and later President and CEO of Atari Corp. He is known for his hard-driving style and cutthroat deal-making.
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[edit] Pre-computer days
Tramiel was born on December 13, 1928, in Łódź, Poland, as Idek Trzmiel. After the Nazi invasion in 1939 his family was transported to the Jewish ghetto in Łódź, where he worked in a garment factory. When the ghettos were liquidated his family was sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. He was examined by Dr. Mengele and selected for a work party, after which he and his father were sent to the labor camp Ahlem near Hanover, while his mother remained at Auschwitz. While in the labor camp his father mysteriously died, like many other inmates, near the end of the war. For an unspecified reason, the Nazis claim he died from typhus, though there is no proof of this. Tramiel believes he was killed by a Nazi injection of gasoline. Tramiel was rescued from the labor camp in April 1945 by the 84th Infantry Division.
In November of 1947, Tramiel emigrated to the United States and soon joined the army. In the army he learned how to repair office equipment, including typewriters. In 1953, while working as a taxi driver, he bought a shop in the Bronx to repair office machinery, and named it Commodore Portable Typewriter.
[edit] Commodore
Tramiel started a business importing typewriters from Europe, and in 1955, to circumvent import restrictions, he set up Commodore Business Machines in Toronto. Tramiel wanted a military-style name for his company, but names like Admiral and General were already taken, so he settled on the Commodore name.[2]
In 1962, Commodore went public, but Tramiel remained head of Commodore until the mid-1980s. During this time, Commodore migrated from selling calculators to home computers, including the Commodore 64, which launched in 1982.
[edit] Tramel Technology and Atari
On January 13, 1984 Tramiel resigned from Commodore. After a short break from the computer industry, he formed a new company named Tramel Technology, Ltd.,[3] in order to design and sell a next-generation home computer.
On July 3, 1984 Tramel Technology bought the Consumer Division of Atari Inc. from Warner Communications,[3] which had fallen on hard times, due to the video game crash of 1983. TTL was then renamed Atari Corporation.
In the late 1980s, Tramiel decided to step away from day-to-day operations at Atari Corp. and named his eldest son Sam the new President and CEO, returning to oversee operations when Sam had a heart attack in late 1995. In 1996 he decided to sell Atari Corp. to disk-drive manufacturer Jugi Tandon Storage in a reverse merger deal. The newly merged company was named JTS Corporation, and Jack Tramiel joined the JTS board.
Jack Tramiel is now retired and living in Monte Sereno, California with his wife Helen, whom he married in 1947 shortly after his immigration from Poland. They have three sons: Sam (born 1950), Leonard (born 1955 or 1956), and Garry (born 1959 or 1960). The Tramiels also have several grandchildren.
[edit] References
- ^ Jack Tramiel
- ^ As Commodore 64 Turns 25, Founders Reminisce. www.pcmag.com (3/29/94). Retrieved on 2007-12-14.
- ^ a b Time Warner Companies Inc, et al. · SC 13D/A. www.secinfo.com (3/29/94). Retrieved on 2007-12-06.
[edit] External links
- You Don't Know Jack at a Commodore History Site
- 1985 episode of The Computer Chronicles featuring an extended interview with Tramiel
- The Color Computers - 1979 to 1980 — Excerpt from the book On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore (2005), Variant Press. (ISBN 0-9738649-0-7) documenting Tramiel's involvement with Commodore.
