Harvard
Business
School DEC
Collection
As many of
our readers
may know,
Ken Olsen
gifted,
through one
of his
foundations,
the monies
to build the
Ken Olsen
Science
Center at
Gordon
College,
which was
dedicated in
2008. He
also donated
to Gordon
College the
many
documents
developed
during his
life and
career as a
computer
engineer,
entrepreneur,
and
co-founder
of Digital
Equipment
Corporation
and
President of
the company
from
1957-1992.
In recent
years,
Gordon
College,
with the
permission
of Ken's
family, have
permanently
loaned this
material
[approximately
85 boxes] to
the Baker
Library at
the Harvard
Business
School. The
contact who
has
knowledge of
the Digital
collection
is Laura
Linard who
manages
Special
Collections
at the
Library. At
this time
there is no
plan to make
these
documents
digitally
available.
However,
arrangements
can be made
for
researchers
to see these
documents as
well as
former
Digital
employees
who are
researching
this
information
for their
own use.
[Laura's
email is
llinard@hbs.edu;
phone
617-495-6360]
Below is a
pointer to
the Digital
Collection
which has an
index of all
the
material.
The original
business
plan that
Ken Olsen
developed to
start DEC is
part of this
material,
along with
addendums
and business
letters.
https://hollisarchives.lib.harvard.edu/repositories/11/resources/9199
DECconnection
has acquired
a copy of
this
original
business
plan from
Robert
Parsons, who
worked
closely with
Ken during
his last few
years at
Digital and
also at
Ken's start
up, Advanced
Modular
Solutions.
We were able
to obtain
permission
from Gordon
College to
share the
contents
with our
readers. You
shall see
this scanned
document in
its original
printed
format which
is white
text on a
black
background.
For the sake
of
readability,
we have also
inserted
retyped
pages behind
those pages
difficult to
read. This
1957
document has
2 proposals
about 5
months
apart, with
the latest
listed
first. See
pointer
below.
Ken Olsen's
1957
Business
Plan to
Start DEC