Famous People Who Overcame Dyslexia

William Hewlett

William R. Hewlett (May 20, 1913 - January 12, 2001) was the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). He was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan but moved to San Francisco at the age of 3 years.

Dyslexia forced Hewlett to memorize schoolwork, and this apparently developed his memory powers to the point that he seemed to memorize everything. He was "a sponge for information," according to Karen Lewis, HP’s corporate archivist. "He knows more about more things than anyone I've ever met," says John Young, former chief executive of HP.

The company drew researchers, engineers, and teachers from institutions like MIT and Bell Labs. Employees often took their work home with them, discussing ideas at parties and on golf courses.

One story says Hewlett went to the plant on a weekend to pick up a microscope, only to find the storage bins locked. He smashed the lock, and left a note ordering the bins to be left open so employees could take home equipment to experiment with.

Another story has 12-year-old Steve Jobs calling Hewlett at home to ask for spare parts. When he stopped laughing, Hewlett gave him the parts and his first summer job at HP. Jobs has often acknowledged a debt to Hewlett and to HP.

He even escorted competitors on tours of the HP plant. "I'm always in favor of that. We can show them what we're doing, but we don't have to tell them what's in my head," he said.

In 1970, when the company experienced difficulty and needed to cut its payroll by 10 percent, Hewlett declined to lay off anyone, and instead ordered that all employees, himself included, would take Fridays off without pay for six months.

The HP Way has become a commonplace practice at high-tech companies, including Agilent Technologies (an HP spin-off), Silicon Graphics Inc., Sun Microsystems, and Tandem Computers.

Hewlett and Packard together gave more than $300 million to Stanford. "This was equivalent to the financial contributions the Stanfords themselves had made, adjusted for inflation," said Stanford professor James Gibbons. But he refused to allow Stanford to name any buildings after him during his lifetime, according to his oldest son, Walter.

Hewlett and his wife established the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Additional Links:

Bill Hewlett Remembered - IT World Com Site Network
Former Executive Bio - William R. Hewlett, Official HP site

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