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To: Larry Loeb who wrote (27240)	6/9/1998 4:04:00 PM
From: Frank	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 33344

Bill Lowe, who really didn't believe in the future of the PC, named Estridge to head up the project. Estridge was a second line programming manager who was being 'punished' for something or other, but was a good enough organizer to actually line up all the dependencies, design and build the original PC on a very compressed schedule. He got Lowe to authorize a special employee discount, another first for the group, because Lowe didn't believe they would recoupe development costs through sales alone, which were slated to be 25k units. Well, the PC was so succesful that they had to promote Estridge along with the growth of the market. He was about the only original design team member that got any real bucks out of the deal, most of the rest of the team leaving the company in dissapointment over the lack of rewards. Estrige rode it up to Division President when an L1011 landing at DFW got dirt over the windshield instead of concrete under the wheels. He left a winner. Ironically, he was not a great manager, and an audit found massive inventory problems which probably would have caused his removal from the presidency had he not met his demise. His family settled with the airline for big bucks, it was later reported, based on loss of future income, etc. Frank

To: Larry Loeb who wrote (27240)	6/9/1998 4:31:00 PM
From: Paul Engel	Respond to of 33344

Larry - Re: "What was Don Estridge's role (I thought he was in charge of the Entry Systems Division in Boca)." Bill Lowe selected Don Estridge to head up the hardware design team, reporting to him (Bill Lowe). As I recollect, in the spring of 1981 Bill Lowe was transferred to Rochester, Minn, to head up an IBM division (presumably in the disk drive arena) after the former head dropped dead from a heart attack while jogging/vacationing in Mexico. That left Don Estridge as head of the Project Chess program, as the original IBM PC program was called (the PC itself was called "Acorn"). Don Estridge championed the system and shepherded it - and all the sub-contractors - and delivered the project pretty much on schedule for the August, 1981 Roll Out. Estridge has been given the credit (deservedly so) for making the PC a success. Unfortunately, he and his wife were killed in a Delta plane crash at the Dallas/FW airport in 1986 or thereabouts. Paul