Bill English joined SRI in the very early 1960s to work on magnetic devices. At SRI he became interested in their use as logic devices, which led to his building one of the first all-magnetic arithmetic units with Hew Crane.
The principal reason behind this Hall of Fame award, however, lies in his accomplishments in helping define the earliest expressions of personal computing. The first person to join Engelbart’s lab in 1964, he became the hardware architect of one of the first truly interactive computing systems. Relying on developments in the evolving world of timeshare computers, he led the fabrication and assemblage of those hardware elements needed to demonstrate a revolutionary capability we now call personal computing.
He also led a 1965 NASA project that evaluated the best means to select a point on a computer display. That proved to be the mouse, which Bill had a major role in creating. To meet the continuous need for monitoring computer input/output, he integrated instantly responsive electronic displays that became a cornerstone in interactive computing. This assemblage of equipment would become the basis for one of the most important events in the history of computing, a 90-minute live demonstration before the 1968 Fall Joint Computer Conference in San Francisco’s Civic Center Auditorium.
Although it was Doug who convinced the conference leaders to allow the demonstration, it was Bill who designed the means to connect a terminal in the San Francisco Civic Auditorium to its host at SRI, 30 miles away in Menlo Park. The connection would accommodate not only the digital data that needed to be passed but also the audio and video channels that would enable the first demonstration of a real time collaborative environment for two computer users. This moment was a true watershed in the history of computing and Bill was the principal person that pulled it together. Bill left SRI in 1971 to follow the rapidly growing personal computing field elsewhere. His accomplishments at SRI truly altered the future of computing, however, making him clearly deserving of this Hall of Fame award.