Forget Bill Gates, what about this guy?

[charliekilothree]

Invisible Black Man

Dr. Mark Dean


"America's High Tech "Invisible Man"
By Tyrone D. Taborn

You may not have heard of Dr. Mark Dean. And you aren't alone. But
almost everything in your life has been affected by his work.

See, Dr. Mark Dean is a Ph.D. from StanfordUniversity. He is in the
National Hall of Inventors. He has more than 30 patents pending. He is a vice president with IBM. Oh, yeah. And he is also the architect of the modern-day personal computer. Dr. Dean holds three of the original nine patents on the computer that all PCs are based upon. And, Dr. Mark Dean is an African American.

So how is it that we can celebrate the 20th anniversary of the IBM
personal computer without reading or hearing a single word about him?
Given all of the pressure mass media are under about negative portrayals
of African Americans on television and in print, you would think it
would be a slam dunk to highlight someone like Dr. Dean.

Somehow, though, we have managed to miss the shot. History is cruel
when it comes to telling the stories of African Americans. Dr. Dean isn't
the first Black inventor to be overlooked. Consider John Stanard, inventor
of the refrigerator, George Sampson, creator of the clothes dryer,
Alexander Miles and his elevator, Lewis Latimer and the electric lamp. All of these inventors share two things:

One, they changed the landscape of our society; and, two, society
relegated them to the footnotes of history. Hopefully, Dr. Mark Dean
won't go away as quietly as they did. He certainly shouldn't. Dr. Dean
helped start a Digital Revolution that created people like Microsoft's
Bill Gates and Dell Computer's Michael Dell. Millions of jobs in
information technology can be traced back directly to Dr. Dean.

More important, stories like Dr. Mark Dean's should serve as
inspiration for African-American children. Already victims of the
"Digital Divide" and failing school systems, young, Black kids might
embrace technology with more enthusiasm if they knew someone like
Dr. Dean already was leading the way.

Although technically Dr. Dean can't be credited with creating the
computer -- that is left to Alan Turing, a pioneering 20th-century English
mathematician, widely considered to be the father of modern computer
science -- Dr. Dean rightly deserves to take a bow for the machine we
use today. The computer really wasn't practical for home or small
business use until he came along, leading a team that developed the
interior architecture (ISA systems bus) that enables multiple devices,
such as modems and printers, to be connected to personal computers.

In other words, because of Dr. Dean, the PC became a part of our daily lives For most of us, changing the face of society would have been enough. But not for Dr. Dean. Still in his early forties, he has a lot of inventing left in him.

He recently made history again by leading the design team responsible for
creating the first 1-gigahertz processor chip. It's just another huge step in
making computers faster and smaller. As the world congratulates itself for
the new Digital Age brought on by the personal computer, we need to
guarantee that the African-American story is part of the hoopla surrounding
the most stunning technological advance the world has ever seen. We cannot afford to let Dr. Mark Dean become a footnote in history. He is well worth his own history book.





http://www.research.ibm.com/people/d/deanm/

[JamieC]

I've never heard of him either. But it's a trip when we never hear about these important things. But like I keep on saying "We Make It, They Take It".

Thanks CK3

[saraphen]

That story "slipped out" in 2001. But you're right, he's been treated as a footnote. This is why we need to continue to have Black History Month, so that our vigilance continues, and our children can see what greatness they can aspire to.

And CK3...I can't see that orange on Afro Egyptian style.

[tiptop53]

I just showed my son this thread and like always he trys to mimize the importance of what we have done. Some times I feel that a college education makes you dumber when it comes to blacks and the thing we have done to make this country great. Without the inventions where would america be.And to top it off alot of the inventors got ripped off and very were able to get thier patents.

One day his eyes will open and my words will ring in his ears. But until that happens I will keep on educating him on his people even when it is not Black History month.

[ImaJon]

I've never heard of this individual either. All of this intellect that is getting displayed continues to dispell the myth that Blacks can't think or do this or that. And of course that's a good thing.

[jimihaze]

Great post CK3 I am going to look into this and show my kid also.

[MadameX]

Originally Posted by ImaJon

I've never heard of this individual either. All of this intellect that is getting displayed continues to dispell the myth that Blacks can't think.

Exactly. Once again, it's wonderful to see brothas who defy stereotypes and surpass others in their field.

[Nudimmud9]

Excellent read. I didn't know about this gentlemen until now. Thanks for the link too.