Post by Jitze Couperushttp://www.startribune.com/535/story/626752.html
404.
Aaargh! They must have moved the page - I went to the paper
and did a search within the paper on "Norris" and got 25 hits,
the top one pointed to:
http://www.startribune.com/466/story/626752.html
which is the same on the end but different in the middle.
In case it migrates again, here's the text
<quote>
Control Data founder William Norris dies
William Norris, the legendary founder of Control Data Corp.,
died early Monday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
He was 95.
Susan E. Peterson, Star Tribune
Last update: August 21, 2006 7:11 PM
William C. Norris
William Norris, the legendary founder of Control Data Corp.,
died early Monday after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
He was 95.
"His mind was always very, very clear up to the end," said his
son, Roger Norris. "His body just gave out before his mind did."
Norris founded Engineering Research Associates with others in
St. Paul in 1946. The company pioneered the development of the
digital computer, and in 1951 merged with Sperry Rand Corp.
Norris headed Sperry's Univac division, which built "electronic
brains" in St. Paul, through 1957, when he left to co-found
Control Data Corp.
By 1960 his company was building the most powerful computer in
the world. Control Data grew to be one of Minnesota's largest
companies, with $5 billion in sales and 60,000 employees at its
peak in the early 1980s. However, the company suffered with
the rise of the personal computer and other technological changes
that cut into its primary market of large mainframe computers.
Robert Price, who succeeded Norris as CEO of Control Data and
worked with him for 30 years, said Norris was a pragmatist as well
as an "incredible entrepreneur."He was an observer of basic
behavior ... he could see beyond what most people could see,"
Price said. An early example was an iconic story around Control
Data, he said. Norris was a young man living on his family's farm
in the 1930s, at the time of the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression.
"Bill had seen the cows picking green thistles, also known as
tumbleweed, out of the hay," Price said. "So he harvested as much
of the thistle as he could. ... Most of the neighbors thought he
was nuts, but it was that thistle that kept the cows alive."
In 1992, six years after Norris retired as CEO at age 74, the
company was split into an information services business
called Ceridian, now a profitable company with a $1.4 billion
market value, and the dwindling mainframe computer products
business designated as Control Data Systems, which later was
acquired.
Norris didn't stop his visionary ways in "retirement." He founded
the William Norris Institute, which focused on some key initiatives
he had long championed at Control Data: using technology to
improve K-12 and higher education, fostering small business
development in disadvantaged areas of the Twin Cities and developing
a technical training program in Moscow for budding Russian
entrepreneurs.
In 2001, the institute became part of the College of Business at
St. Thomas University. Michael P. Moore, director of the institute,
said Norris transferred $2.3 million to the institute to be used for
investment in innovative, socially beneficial technology companies.
"For companies just getting started, he recognized that the
main missing piece was startup capital," Moore said. "Our
mission is making early stage investments and using the resources
of the College of Business to help companies get started right
and grow."
Norris is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jane Malley Norris;
eight children -- sons William, George, Daniel, Brian, Roger
and David, and daughters Constance Van Hoven and Mary
Keck; 21 grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
There will be a public visitation from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday at
the O'Halloran & Murphy funeral home, 575 S. Snelling Av.,
St. Paul. Funeral services will be announced later.
Susan E. Peterson 612-673-4506 ***@startribune.com
</quote>
Jitze