It's that time of year when high school and college kids step away from their digital screens and engage with some old-school media for a change: their yearbooks. We wanted in on the fun, so we created a yearbook page of sorts for Bob Metcalfe, to showcase his multifaceted kaleidoscope of passion, energy, and intellect and his lifetime of achievement.
MIT whiz kid, Ethernet inventor, 3Com founder, author, dad, National Medal of Technology winner 2003, professor, orator, part-time psychic, pundit, and friend to many. My team and I thank you, Bob, for sharing your ideas and photos, along with your encouragement and suggestions, and we congratulate you on your amazing life story.
Bob, of course, is featured prominently in our book on the 3Com saga, coming out June 4. If you have friends and family you think might be interested in the book (it’s much more than a corporate “yearbook,” offering lessons relevant for anybody trying to ride the roller-coaster of startup life), let them know they can sign up for email updates here, or preorder a copy HERE.
L to R: Bob at work at Xerox PARC in 1973, the year Bob outlined how computers would communicate together via the “Ether”; Bob with Ron Rider in 1974; Bob's 1978 Xerox team shirt celebrating their work on the Xerox Star Project, aka the Xerox 8010 computer —the first widely available commercial PC as we know it today..
L to R: Bob with CEO Bill Krause, in front of the Kifer Road Santa Clara campus sign circa 1984; with Robert Garner (a 41-year Silicon Valley engineering icon at Xerox, Sun, Brocade, and the IBM Almaden Research Center where this photo was taken and where Bob gave a talk on Ethernet's history); with an unnamed falcon.
L to R: Bob with his kids Julia and Max, at the 2003 National Medal in Technology presentation; David Boggs, Ron Crane, and Bob attending the Computer History Museum 2008 Fellows Award; Bob speaking at the 30th 3Com Anniversary Celebration in 2009 at the Marlborough, MA, campus.
L to R: Robyn and Bob Metcalfe; Bob's SXSW pass; meditating on the meaning of life.