Dr. Henry Edward "Ed" Roberts, Class of 1959

Nominated by Dr. Thomas Hagan ‘56

Regarded as the “Father of the Personal Computer” Ed Roberts created the first commercially successful personal computer.

From David Greelish

“Many are unaware that he was also Dr. Henry Edward Roberts, a small town doctor in Cochran, Georgia (about 40 miles south of Macon).

Ed was an entrepreneur and a business owner, and he had three distinct careers during his life. He was a U.S Air Force airman / officer, then an electronics engineer / inventor and then ultimately a doctor.

Although he got sidetracked early on from his dream of becoming a doctor, he worked hard and enjoyed his other endeavors. He never gave up though, and finally made that dream come true, becoming a medical doctor at in 1986 at age 45.

Ed was born in Miami, Florida on September 13, 1941, the older of two children (his sister born in 1947). During World War II, his father went off to the Army, so Ed and his mother lived with her parents on their farm in Wheeler County, Georgia (roughly between Macon and Savannah). He would later return to the farm during his summers to visit his grandparents.

After the war, Ed returned to Miami, where his father ran a household appliance repair service, and his mother was a nurse. At Miami High, Ed excelled in biology and electronics. He built a small relay-based, analog computer to turn lights on and off, also building a relay-based controller for an early heart-lung machine at the University of Miami.” (read more here)