David Packard was co-founder of Hewlett-Packard Company. In 1993, he retired as chairman of the board and was named chairman emeritus. He served in that position until his death on March 26, 1996.
Born in 1912, in Pueblo, Colorado, Packard attended Stanford University and received a B.A. in 1934 and a master's degree in electrical engineering in 1939.
From 1936 to 1938, Packard worked as an engineer with the General Electric Co. in Schenectady, N.Y. He formed the partnership that would come to be known as the Hewlett-Packard Company in 1938, with William R. Hewlett, a Stanford friend.
Their first product was a resistance-capacitance audio oscillator based on a design Hewlett developed in graduate school. Hewlett-Packard's first office was a small garage in Palo Alto, and the initial capital amounted to a mere $538. Packard served as a partner in the company from its founding in 1939 until it was incorporated in 1947. In 1947, he became president, a post he held until 1964, when he was elected chairman of the board and chief executive officer.
Packard held several political appointments and was deeply involved with a variety of charitable causes.
Information as of 1996