Computer History Museum

Starkweather, Gary oral history

Physicist Gary Starkweather, inventor of the laser printer, speaks about his early work at Xerox and the management challenges he faced in convincing Xerox to pursue this technology. He begins by discussing his childhood and early formative experiences, then progresses to his advanced study of optics at the University of Rochester, his work at Bausch and Lomb then Xerox, and finally Apple and Microsoft. The laser printer program that Starkweather pursued provides a lesson in how monopolies miss opportunities by their focus on protecting existing products and techniques at the expense of technologies they consider disruptive.

Item Details

Date
2010-08-23 (Made)
Type
Document
Catalogue number
102702465
Organization
Computer History Museum
People
Lauren Nelson (Editor)
Gary Starkweather (Interviewee)
Dag Spicer (Editor)
Gardner Hendrie (Interviewer)
Category
Transcript
Oral History
Credit line
Computer History Museum
Extent
52 p.
Place of publication
North America/USA/FL/DeBary
Language
English
Acquisition number
X5848.2010
Subject
Xerox, Apple Computer, Inc., Laser Printer, Canon, Kodak, PostScript, Xerox PARC, Stanford University
Archive collection
Oral history collection
Archive hierarchy
CHM Oral History Collection