Victor Poor
| Victor Poor | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Victor Dale Poor July 12, 1933 Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Died | August 17, 2012 (aged 79) Palm Bay, Florida, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pancreatic cancer |
| Nationality | United States |
| Occupation | Engineer, Inventor |
| Years active | 1952–2012 |
| Employer |
United States Navy Stromberg-Carlson Raytheon Frederick Electronics Datapoint Airnet |
| Known for | Co-development of the microprocessor, ARCNET, APlink, Winlink |
| Home town | Brevard County, Florida |
| Spouse(s) | Florence Ann Poor |
| Children | Meredith Norman Poor, Noreen Dell Poor, Shirley Jean Schmidt |
| Call-sign | W6JSO/W5SMM |
| Awards | ARRL President's Award |
Victor "Vic" Poor (July 12, 1933 – August 17, 2012) was an engineer whose designs of hardware and software led to many innovations. At Computer Terminal Corporation (later renamed Datapoint Corporation), he co-created the architecture that was ultimately implemented in the first successful computer microprocessor, the Intel 8008. Subsequently, Computer Terminal Corporation created the first personal computer, the Datapoint 2200 programmable terminal.
Victor Dale Poor was born in Los Angeles, California, the son of Pinckney Peyton Poor and Leona Lucille Poor (née Mallory). With a passion for radio, he built his own transceiver from collected discarded pieces, and qualified on amateur radio in 1951 (callsign W6JSO).
After high school, Poor joined the United States Navy. While attending electronics training at the Treasure Island Naval Base in 1952, he met his wife, Florence, in a church in San Francisco. On completing his training the couple married in November 1952, and he was then assigned to Ford Island naval base, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
On leaving the Navy in 1955, Poor joined the telecommunications technology team at Stromberg-Carlson in San Diego, California. Trained in computer programming, he wrote his first programme in 1956 for the UNIVAC 1103. Recruited by Raytheon, the couple then moved to Massachusetts. Although Poor did not attend college, he took electronics training classes both in the Navy and at Raytheon. A quick learner, he soon knew more than his instructors and began teaching classes himself.
Poor then moved to Maryland to help form radio and telegraph equipment manufacturer Frederick Electronics. Quickly made an executive, he developed the idea of adapting radioteletype (RTTY) machines to send data wirelessly. These were then sold to both the United States Army and later commercial media customers, such as the Associated Press, to send affiliated news reports as data around the world.
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