Hewlett Dies: Silicon Valley's Founding Father

He started HP in a Palo Alto garage with $538 and a coin flip that decided the company name's order. Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, Stanford engineering graduates, built their first product, an audio oscillator, in that tiny workspace, selling eight to Walt Disney for sound equipment in Fantasia. Their garage would later be dubbed the "birthplace of Silicon Valley," transforming how the world thinks about technology startups. But Hewlett wasn't just a businessman; he was an engineer who believed technology could solve human problems, not just generate profit. William Redington Hewlett died on January 12, 2001, at 87, leaving behind a company that had grown from a two-man garage operation into one of the world's largest technology corporations. The famous coin toss in 1939 determined whether it would be Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett. The audio oscillator, the Model 200A, was priced at $54.40 (a nod to the "54-40 or fight" slogan), dramatically undercutting competitors selling similar instruments for over $200. Walt Disney Studios bought eight for the multi-channel sound system used in the animated film Fantasia. During World War II, HP produced microwave signal generators for radar systems, establishing the company's relationship with military and scientific customers. Hewlett served as an Army officer in the war, leading a team that inspected Japanese and German electronics factories. After the war, he and Packard developed the "HP Way," a management philosophy emphasizing employee autonomy, profit-sharing, and open workspace design that became the template for Silicon Valley corporate culture. HP grew into a $50 billion company spanning computers, printers, test equipment, and medical devices. Hewlett's personal philanthropy, channeled through the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, has distributed billions toward education, environment, and global development.