Title
Clay, Roy oral historyCatalog Number
102717266Type
DocumentDescription
Roy Clay was the first African-American software developer and manager at Hewlett-Packard, after developing programming skills at the Lawrence Radiation Labs, and Control Data’s Palo Alto facility. His story includes his early life, influenced strongly by his math teacher mother. He graduated from St. Louis University, and was offered a job at McDonnell Aircraft in 1955, which was rescinded when he reported to the company because he was black.Moving to California, he couldn’t find housing for blacks except in San Francisco, so he did a ‘reverse commute’ both to Livermore and later to Palo Alto for years.
Hired by HP to work on their first minicomputer, the HP 2116, he built the software team which did the operating system as well as system drivers and some applications, including a network DBMS, HP Image. He left HP when David Packard went to the Pentagon, because Bill Hewlett was not in favor of computers. He describes several incidents, including rescinding the Holiday In multi-terminal solution, that led him to quit (and several of his team as well, who later co-founded Tandem Computer). He closes that portion by describing Packard’s willingness to abandon computing when he returned—asking Clay to rejoin the company so he could exit computing, Clay refused, and never again worked in computing.
Other segments of the interview include his election as Palo Alto City Vice Mayor, including a congratulatory letter from long-time friend and colleague Tom Perkins, and President of the Olympic Club golf association, where he organized and managed a major fund-raising event for Blacks for years in his late wife’s name. Clay also served for years as a consultant for Perkins at the Kleiner-Perkins venture capital firm. Occasional lapses in the interview are a result of an unfortunate stroke several years prior to this interview.
This interview was done in Roy Clay’s home in Piedmont, CA. Several people attended, including two of his sons, Roy Jr. and Rodney. Also, two women who are working with Clay at the RoyClayGroup.com—Barbara Becnel, and Deborah Tinsley. Gardner Hendrie and Chuck House were the CHM interviewers
Date
2016-12-13Contributor
| Becnel, Barbara, Interviewee |
| Clay, Rodney, Interviewee |
| Clay, Roy, Interviewee |
| Clay, Roy Jr., Interviewee |
| Fortier, James, Camera person |
| Hendrie, Gardner, Interviewer |
| House, Chuck, Interviewer |
| Tinsley, Deborah, Interviewee |
Publisher
Computer History MuseumPlace of Publication
Oakland, CAExtent
56 p.Format
PDFCategory
TranscriptionSubject
Race; Hewlett-PackardCollection Title
CHM Oral History CollectionCredit
Computer History MuseumLot Number
X8033.2017
Related Records
| 102717267 | Clay, Roy oral history |