Bob Taylor
NASA and ARPA
- Originally he wanted to become a priest just like his father.
- After his course of studies he works as a math teacher and as a basketball coach.
- Eventually the twins his wife was expecting forced him to accept a more lucrative job as an engineer. (“I had a wonderful time but was very poor“)
- During his time at NASA he met his scientific role model Licklider, then-director of IPTO.
- He joined ARPA in 1965 as an assistant for Ivan Sutherland and was promoted director of IPTO just one year later.
- He had three different terminals in his office, which were connected to three mainframe computers at different locations, and each terminal had to be operated differently. This “terminal problem” and the fact that mainframe computers were unbelievably expensive, made him create a new project.
- After a 20 minute discussion with his boss Charlie Herzfeld he had a budget of one million dollar for his network project, which later became known as ARPANET.
Bob Taylor
born in 1932 in Texas
Studied at Southern Methodist University and at the University of Texas
NASA, ARPA, Xerox Parc, DEC
