[game_preservation] Computer Legend and Gaming Pioneer Jack Tramiel Dies at Age 83

[Martin Goldberg]

We were supposed to meet with him next week when Curt and I are in
your area doing interviews for the Atari book. Curt had talked to him
on the phone in February, and he was genuinely interested because we
were going to set the record straight on his family and Atari.

I'm sorry we lost that chance, but more importantly I'm sorry for the
loss of an industry icon, holocaust survivor, father, and grandfather.

On Mon, Apr 9, 2012 at 2:34 PM, Susan L Rojo <srojo at stanford.edu> wrote:


>

>

> http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidthier/2012/04/09/computer-legend-and-gaming-pioneer-jack-tramiel-dies-at-age-83/

>

>

> [image: Jack Tramiel founder of Commodore Internationa...]<http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jack_Tramiel_cropped.jpg>

>

> Jack Tramiel founder of Commodore International, speaking at the C64 25th

> Anniversary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

>

> Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore International<http://www.forbes.com/international/> and

> crucial figure in the early history of personal computing,  passed away

> surrounded by his family on Sunday, his family confirms. He was 83 years

> old.

>

> Tramiel was born in Poland to a Jewish family in 1928. During World War

> II, he and his family were sent to Auschwitz, after which he and his father

> were sent to a labor camp called Ahlem, near Hannover. Tramiel was rescued

> in April 1945 and emigrated to the United States in 1947. In 1984, after

> being forced to leave the company he founded, Jack bought the crumbling

> Atari Inc.’s Consumer Division and formed Atari Corporation.

>

> In America, Tramiel started a typewriter repair business. Staying in the

> forefront of technology, his typewriters morphed into calculators, and

> later computers. In 1982, Commodore International launched the Commodore

> 64, which went on to the best-selling personal computer of all time.

> Tramiel also founded the Atari Corporation in 1984.

>

> “Jack Tramiel was an immense influence in the consumer electronics

> and computing industries. A name once uttered in the same vein as

> Steve Jobs is today, his journey from concentration camp survivor to

> captain of industry is the stuff of legends,” says Martin Goldberg, a

> writer working on a book about the Atari brand and the early days of video

> games and computing with Atari Museum founder Curt Vendel.

>

> “His legacy are the generations upon generations of computer scientists,

> engineers, and gamers who had their first exposure to high technology

> because of his affordable computers – ‘for the masses and not the classes.’”

>

> Tramiel is survived by his wife Helen, their three sons, Gary<http://www.forbes.com/places/in/gary/>,

> Sam and Leonard, and their extended families.

>

>

> --

> Susan Rojo

> Manager, Digital Media and Collections Projects

> HRG, Green Library, 557 Escondido Mall

> Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004

> AKA Mollie Mavendorf in SL

> @digiarchivist

> 650.721.2752

> srojo at stanford.edu

>

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>

>



-- 
Marty
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