Father of the IBM PC who broke tradition by using outside hardware manufacturers and allowing users to write programs themselves.
He studied electrical engineering at the University of Florida and developed radar systems for the Army.
His inventions didn't all gain traction. For example, the IBM PCjr, the first attempt at a personal computer, was called one of the biggest flops in the history of computing.
He and his wife were both killed when the Delta Air Lines Flight 191 crashed on approach to Dallas during a thunderstorm.
He and Thomas J. Watson, the one-time CEO of IBM, both helped the company to become a personal-computing giant.
