Robert (Bob) E. Watson

Directed such "firsts" for HP as the first HP desktop calculator family, HP's first handheld calculators, HP's first LaserJets, and HP's first ink-jet products, Watson spent 30 years with Hewlett-Packard, serving in many positions ranging from R&D Engineer to Lab Manager, Division Manager, Group Manager, and others. Through the course of his career with HP, Watson has been responsible for developing entire business strategies, including budgets, personnel, and schedules.

He worked as a manager under Don Schulz on the HP 9100 project. Promoted by Bill Hewlett and Marco Negrete to Lab Manager in the new Calculator Products Division (CPD), he would go on to work for a new CPD Division Manager, Tom Kelly, who had been the Loveland Division's Marketing Manager. Watson recognized that the next generation of desktop calculators would need bigger ROMs than the one used in the HP 9100 to accommodate more complex programming languages and more features.

He also realized that the HP 9100's pc-board ROM was a dead-end technology. It could not be made bigger technically and was already too expensive to manufacture, due to poor circuit-board yields and the need to hand-select transistors for the pc-board ROM's sense amplifiers. Integrated-circuit ROMs appeared to be a much better alternative.

Following his early retirement from HP, Watson has spent much of his business time on various boards and education subcommittees for the State of Idaho.