Douglas Engelbart

Engelbart ran the Augmentation Research Center at SRI International with ARPA funding, chasing the idea that technology should boost collective human performance. The work produced the computer mouse, bitmapped screens, word processing, hypertext, and networked computing - technologies he unveiled together in 1968 at what became known as "The Mother of All Demos." The lab and its oN-Line System moved to Tymshare in the late 1970s, then to McDonnell Douglas in 1984, where his ideas found little interest or money; he retired in 1986. Two years later he and his daughter launched the Bootstrap Institute to keep the vision alive, securing some DARPA support to update the system. He won the Turing Award in 1997 and received the National Medal of Technology from President Clinton in 2000.