| Kenneth Harry Olsen | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 20, 1926 Bridgeport, Connecticut |
| Died | February 6, 2011 (aged 84)[1] Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Engineer |
| Known for | Founding Digital Equipment Corporation with Harlan Anderson |
Kenneth Harry Olsen (February 20, 1926[2] — February 6, 2011[3]) was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson.[4]
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Kenneth Harry Olsen was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and grew up in the neighboring town of Stratford, Connecticut. His father's parents came from Norway and his mother's parents from Sweden. Olsen began his career working summers in a machine shop. Fixing radios in his basement gave him the reputation of a neighborhood inventor.
After serving in the United States Navy between 1944 and 1946, Olsen attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he earned an BS (1950) and an MS (1952) degrees in electrical engineering.[5]
During his studies at MIT, the Office of Naval Research of the United States Department of the Navy recruited Olsen to help build a computerized flight simulator. Also while at MIT he directed the building of the first transistorized research computer. Olsen was an engineer who had been working at MIT Lincoln Laboratory on the TX-2 project.[6]
In 1957, Ken Olsen and an MIT colleague, Harlan Anderson, decided to start their own firm. They approached American Research and Development Corporation, an early venture capital firm, which had been founded by Georges Doriot. In the 1960s, Olsen received patents for a saturable switch, a diode transformer gate circuit, an improved version of magnetic core memory, and the line printer buffer. (Note that MIT professor Jay W. Forrester is generally credited with inventing the first practical magnetic core memory).
Ken Olsen was known throughout his career for his paternalistic management style and his fostering of engineering innovation. Ken Olsen's valuing of innovation and technical excellence spawned and popularized techniques, such as engineering matrix management, that are broadly employed today throughout many industries.[7]
He was inducted as a Fellow of the Computer History Museum in 1996. He was awarded the Vermilye Medal in 1980.
In 1986, Fortune Magazine named Olsen "America's most successful entrepreneur",[8] and the same year he received the IEEE Engineering Leadership Recognition Award.[9] Olsen was the subject of a 1988 biography, The Ultimate Entrepreneur: The Story of Ken Olsen and Digital Equipment Corporation written by Glenn Rifkin and George Harrar.
In 2011, he was listed at #6 on the MIT150 list of the top 150 innovators and ideas from MIT.
In 1987 he gave the first of his infamous "snake oil speeches", taken by some to be referring indirectly to the "Unix Conspiracy".[10] While Olsen believed VMS was a better solution for DEC customers and often talked of the strengths of the system, he did approve and encourage an internal effort to produce a native BSD-based UNIX product on the VAX line of computers called Ultrix. However, this line never got enthusiastic comprehensive support at DEC.
Olsen retired from DEC in 1992. He subsequently became the chairman of Advanced Modular Solutions. Olsen was also a major contributor to The Family, a religious and political organization.[11]
Olsen was a trustee of Gordon College in Wenham, Massachusetts.[12] There, the Ken Olsen Science Center was named after him in 2006,[13] and dedicated on 27 September 2008. Its lobby features a Digital Loggia of Technology, documenting Digital's technology and history, and an interactive kiosk to which former employees have submitted their stories.
Olsen died while in hospice care in Indianapolis, Indiana on February 6, 2011, aged 84. Gordon College, where he was a trustee and board member, announced his death, but did not reveal the cause of death.[3][14] His family also did not comment on any details surrounding his death.[2]
Two quotes of his are frequently taken out of context, and are indeed among the least understood in the industry.