Have You Ever Heard Of This Invisible Black Man?

[FOTD]

Invisible Black Man
Dr. Mark Dean
http://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PIX/dean.mark.gifhttp://www.math.buffalo.edu/mad/PIX/dean.mark.gif


"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 Stanford University.  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.

www.zulunation.com/BLACKINVENTIONS.html


http://www.computerhistory.org/trustee/Mark,Dean/ and http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/kareem/2008/02/dr-mark-e-dean.html.






The point is, did anyone know this man, what he has done, or even that he existed? Anyone see any interviews even in the independent media about him?

[custosnox]

There are many, many "unsung heroes" in the world of sciene and technology.  Don't think this person has been singled out.  And while his accomplishments are grand, there are others who have done far more that noone has ever heard of.

[Breadburner]

I thought this was about the empty suit in the Whitehouse......

[Wrinkle]

I recall him, though probably couldn't have told you his name if asked outright. In fact, I recall seeing an IBM commercial on TV with him in it recently (2-3 months).

btw, the 20th anniversary of the IBM-PC would've been in 2001 (introduced in 1981, that's also when I got mine), but some reports I've seen lately stated it as 1980 (as it was being built).

I have Vol 1 No 8? of Byte or PC World magazine with it's announcement on the cover.

Also, Apple did pretty well, too, having introduced their first computer in 1978, I think. So, creating the ISA bus, while noteworthy, probably is not a be-all/end-all issue in the grand scheme of things. Still a great accomplishment, but not quite on par with the transistor.

Today's PC contains hundreds of ISA type equivalents in terms of advancement in the general technology.

Not really trying to discount Dr. Dean's achievement(s), just relate some facts.

[cannon_fodder]

I get it.  Because the media failed to highlight this particular person, we're all racist.  What other message did you want us to take from it? 

The guy is in the "inventors hall of fame" and a VP at IBM, it's not like he has been over looked for his contributions.  No, I didn't know him.  I also don't know who invented the flat panel monitor, the CD-RW, the cell phone, or any number of other recent and important inventions.  Black, white, Indian, or whatever.  And I don't have any of their trading cards.

Also, there is room for debate on who invented the PC:

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/it/1994/2/1994_2_64.shtml

And to pretend it was one man is a bit crazy.  IBM as a corporation popularized the PC with hundreds of people working on it.  The device would not have been possible without prior research by the government, the Intel invention of the micro processor, or other inventions. And even that would have been a marginal device without DOS (a la Bill Gates).   Mr. Dean, apparently, has 33% of the original patents for the PC.  But it isn't clear if HE devised the use for those patents that changed the world. 

He contributed a lot, but THE father of the computer age he is not.  Dozens of people, if not more, throw in their 2 cents to make it work.  As is the case with many inventions.

And frankly, I don't care what color any of their skin is.

[Conan71]

[sgrizzle]

Someone should tell this guy: