Tom West

American computer hardware engineer

Tom West
West at home in Westport MA, 2009
Born	Joseph Thomas West (1939-11-22)November 22, 1939 New York City, New York, U.S.
Died	May 19, 2011(2011-05-19) (aged 71)
Alma mater	Amherst College, B.A. 1962
Children	2

Joseph Thomas West III (November 22, 1939 – May 19, 2011)^[1] was an American technologist. West is notable for being the key figure in the Pulitzer Prize winning non-fiction book The Soul of a New Machine.^[2]

West began his career in computer design at RCA, after seven years at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, a job he'd gotten right out of college.^[3] He started working for Data General in 1974.^[3] He became the head of Data General's Eclipse group and then became the lead on the Eagle project, building a machine officially named the Eclipse MV/8000.^[3] After the publication of Soul of a New Machine, West was sent to Japan by Data General where he helped design DG-1, the first full-screen laptop.^[3] His last project in 1996, a thin Web server, was intended to be an internet-ready machine.^[4] West retired as Chief Technologist in 1998.^[5]

Personal life

West was married to Elizabeth (Cohon) West in 1965; they divorced in 1994.^[6] The couple had two daughters, Katherine West and librarian Jessamyn West.^[7] West married Cindy Woodward (his former assistant at Data General) in 2001; the couple divorced in 2011. West died at the age of 71 in his Westport, Massachusetts home of an apparent heart attack.^[6] His nephew, Christopher Schwarz, is a former editor of Popular Woodworking magazine, author of The Anarchist's Toolchest, and co-founder of Lost Art Press; West's death prompted Schwarz to "leave the magazine and do my own thing".^[8]

References

^ "J. Thomas West 71, of Westport". eastbayri.com. Archived from the original on 25 May 2011. Retrieved 20 May 2011.
^ Kidder, Tracy (1981) [1997]. The Soul of a New Machine. Modern Library. ISBN 978-0-316-49170-9.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Ratliff, Evan. "O, Engineers!". Wired. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
^ InfoWorld. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. 15 July 1996. p. 8. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
^ Brown, Bob (2011-12-01). "2011's Most Notable Tech Industry Deaths". CIO. Retrieved 2020-11-14.
^ ^a ^b Marquard, Bryan (22 May 2011). "Tom West; engineer was the soul of Data General's new machine". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 22 May 2011.
^ Paul Vitello (May 27, 2011). "Tom West Dies at 71; Was the Computer Engineer Incarnate". The New York Times.
^ "An Interview with Chris Schwarz". 26 March 2012.

Ratliff, Evan (December 2000). "O, Engineers!". Wired. Vol. 8, no. 12. pp. 356–367. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved 2009-06-30. Twenty-year retrospective of The Soul of a New Machine, with "where are they now?" segments on the people involved and on Data General.
Cole, Richard (13 March 1996). "Tom West: The Soul of a Development Manager; Data General veteran expanding NUMA, open systems technology". UniNews. 10 (4). Santa Clara, California: UniForum: 4–5. ISSN 1069-0395. Retrieved 2009-06-30. 1996 interview with West.
Data General 5th Generation MV/Family announcement. 1990. Archived from the original on 2021-12-13. Retrieved 2020-01-31. A decade after the events described in The Soul of a New Machine, West, still at Data General, appears in this MV/9500 corporate announcement video (from 6:00 to 14:30).