David Packard – Author Biography
Early Life
David Packard was born on September 7, 1912, in Pueblo, Colorado. He studied electrical engineering at Stanford University, where he met Bill Hewlett, his future business partner, and later earned graduate degrees in engineering.
Career
In 1939, Packard and Hewlett founded the Hewlett-Packard Company in a Palo Alto garage with $538 in working capital, building their first product, an audio oscillator, which Walt Disney bought for the production of Fantasia. Packard served as president and later CEO, building HP into one of the world’s great technology companies on the principles of the “HP Way”: respect for employees, decentralized management, and integrity. From 1969 to 1971 he served as U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense. His book The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company (1995) distilled his management philosophy. A major philanthropist, he and his wife founded the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. He died on March 26, 1996, in Stanford, California.
Major Works
His principal book is The HP Way, a memoir and management treatise drawn from six decades of building one of Silicon Valley’s founding companies.
Writing Style and Themes
Packard writes in a plain, engineer-like style, favoring concrete examples over abstraction. His recurring themes are management by walking around, trust in employees, the importance of contributing to society beyond profit, and the garage-startup ethos that defined Silicon Valley. The HP Way’s eleven simple rules remain a touchstone of humane management philosophy.
Legacy
Packard co-founded the company that helped create Silicon Valley itself; the HP garage is a California landmark known as the birthplace of Silicon Valley. The HP Way influenced generations of technology leaders, and his philanthropy, through the Packard Foundation, continues to fund conservation, science, and children’s health.
