Imagine the Research Triangle without IBM – and the Triangle without the personal computer. Then imagine this: No RTP as we know it today and perhaps a world of PCs that would be even more expensive while very proprietary.

But due in large parts to one visionary at International Business Machines, the company became a leader in PC development, gave a huge boost to a fledgling company called Microsoft, and further boosted IBM in the Triangle when this region became the home for a once robust Big Blue PC division.

William C. Lowe was that man. Sadly, he died earlier this month at the age of 72. But his achievement lives on.

Look at this short passage from IBM’s story of how its PC came about:

“By the end of 1978, he was lab director of the division’s Boca Raton, Florida, site. In this capacity, Lowe approached the IBM Corporate Management Committee (CMC) recommending the company purchase a microcomputer designed for small businesses and consumers to sell under the IBM name, or develop their own. He was given a month to come up with a prototype.”

One month! And he did it.

When IBM turned 100 a couple of years back, the company saluted some of the pioneers who made the company an international giant. Among them was Lowe and the team that built the first PC.

IBM noted:

“No product, idea, or achievement is possible without our most critical asset—the collective thought capital of hundreds of thousands of IBMers. The expertise, technical skill, willingness to take risk and overall dedication of IBM employees have led to countless transformative innovations through the years.”

Leading the Fight

Lowe led those efforts. And he had to fight to do so.

As William Yardley noted in a New York Times obituary:

“William C. Lowe, who supervised the creation of IBM’s first personal computer, a technological touchstone that he insisted — and proved — could be conceived, engineered and manufactured in a single year by a company not known for speeding products to market, died on Oct. 19 in Lake Forest, Ill. He was 72.”

Steven Musil at Cnet praised Lowe for having the fortitude to overcome initial IBM objections to his first idea: Either market an Atari device or acquire Atari. IBM’s reaction, noted Musil: “The dumbest thing we’ve ever heard.”

However, Musil points out that then-IBM CEO Frank Cary had the vision to task Lowe with building a computer. Working under the project name “Chess,” Lowe assembled a “Dirty Dozen” of employees. A year later in August 1981 IBM introduced its computer – called the IBM PC” for personal computer.

Thus the term “PC” also was born. It ran on MS-DOS 1.0 from Microsoft, and it utilized an Intel chip. 

Wow, look at where we are today with technology – and how those companies have changed.

Enduring RTP Legacy

IBM wasn’t the first PC maker, of course. But Big Blue charged to the forefront of the industry. Over the years, however, IBM’s leadership faded, leading to the sale of the division to Lenovo in 2005.

But Lenovo today is the world’s top PC maker. And many of the IBMers who transferred to Lenovo from IBM in Raleigh remain employed at Lenovo’s executive headquarters in Morrisville.

They can trace their careers directly to Lowe.

Lowe, an IBmer since 1962, was based in Florida at the time.

And how he helped transform IBM.

“In 1980, Mr. Lowe, who had joined the company as a product test engineer in 1962, right after college, pitched an improbable idea: He would form a team that would build a personal computer in a year. How? The team would bypass IBM’s proprietary development model and instead use parts and software made by a growing industry of outsiders. Even IBM seemed surprised when, a year later, the company pulled it off,” The New York Times noted.

IBM’s acknowledgement of Lowe in the PC project:

“Bill Lowe earned his bachelor of science degree in physics from Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, and joined IBM in 1962 as a product test engineer. In 1975, he was named director of development and manufacturing operations for the General Systems Division. By the end of 1978, he was lab director of the division’s Boca Raton, Florida, site. In this capacity, Lowe approached the IBM Corporate Management Committee (CMC) recommending the company purchase a microcomputer designed for small businesses and consumers to sell under the IBM name, or develop their own. He was given a month to come up with a prototype. Lowe put together a task force to develop the proposal and prototype. It was approved by the CMC, which then gave the group one year to bring the microcomputer to market. Soon after, Lowe was promoted to vice president of the Information Systems Division and general manager of IBM’s Rochester, Minnesota, facility. Don Estridge took over the microcomputer project.”

An amazing achievement, Mr. Lowe.

One that should never be forgotten.

[IBM ARCHIVE: Check out more than a decade of IBM stories as reported in WRALTechWire.]