David Packard Biography: The Rise of Hewlett-Packard

In 1969, David Packard left his executive position at Hewlett-Packard to become the United States deputy secretary of defense. He had spent decades helping William Hewlett turn an electronics partnership into an expanding company. Now his responsibilities included Pentagon budgets, management, and weapons procurement.

The appointment also brought scrutiny. Hewlett-Packard did defense-related business, and critics questioned the potential conflict posed by Packard’s substantial company stock holdings. His move into government was a major change in responsibility, not a clean separation from the questions of management and accountability that had occupied him in industry.

After government service, he would return to HP’s boardroom and, years later, to the debate over defense reform. He and his family also supported institutions in science, children’s health, and community life. Behind those later responsibilities lay a partnership that began with engineering, a university friendship, and a Palo Alto garage.

A Quick Look at the Life of David Packard

From Pueblo to Stanford Engineering

David Packard was born on September 7, 1912, in Pueblo, Colorado, to a lawyer and a teacher. His interest in technical work led toward electrical engineering at Stanford University. There he became friends with William Hewlett, beginning a relationship that would extend into business.

Stanford professor Frederick E. Terman encouraged both men’s interest in electronics and later advised them as they considered a business. Recalling how Terman invited him into a radio-engineering course in 1933, Packard wrote, “it was ham radio that helped set my future course.” The remark was his own recollection of a formative university experience.

After earning a Stanford bachelor’s degree in 1934, Packard worked as an engineer at General Electric in Schenectady, New York. He returned to the Palo Alto area in 1938 and completed further Stanford engineering studies in 1939. His experience at GE and his continued ties to Terman and Hewlett preceded the new partnership.

Packard married Lucile Salter in 1938. She helped with the young business’s paperwork and practical tasks, and later developed philanthropic commitments of her own.

How a Garage Workshop Became Hewlett-Packard

By late 1938, Packard and Hewlett were developing electronic instruments in a garage behind 367 Addison Avenue in Palo Alto. They formally began their business partnership on January 1, 1939. Hewlett-Packard would not incorporate until 1947.

With a reported $538 in starting capital, the partners began building and selling equipment. Company accounts and historical reporting say a coin toss settled the order of their names: Hewlett-Packard rather than Packard-Hewlett.

HP’s first successful commercial instrument was the Model 200A audio oscillator, based on a low-cost circuit developed through Hewlett’s graduate engineering work. Hewlett brought that design; the partners worked together to build, test, sell, and manage the new instruments business.

Walt Disney Productions became an important early customer, ordering eight oscillators for sound work associated with Fantasia. HP’s historical accounts identify the Disney equipment as Model 200B units, distinct from the original 200A. The order was an early commercial success for the garage operation.

By 1940, the business had outgrown that workshop and moved into rented production space. It continued manufacturing electronic instruments during the Second World War. Hewlett served in the armed forces while Packard oversaw the expanding operation, whose production depended increasingly on employees as well as the founders.

From a Partnership to an Electronics Manufacturer

In 1947, eight years after its formal partnership began, Hewlett-Packard incorporated and Packard became president. The workshop business had developed into an electronics manufacturer with employees and a more formal organization.

Retrospective reporting put HP’s 1947 sales at roughly $679,000 and its workforce at about 111 people. By 1958, it reported approximately $30 million in sales and 1,778 employees. As the company expanded, the founders and their growing staff had to manage an enterprise far removed from its original workshop.

HP went public in 1957 and expanded into Europe by 1959. Packard moved from the presidency to the chairman and chief executive roles in 1964. The company established HP Labs in 1966 and broadened its products beyond measurement instruments to include computers and, later, calculators. Those developments involved Hewlett, engineers, employees, and successive management teams.

Growth made the organization harder to coordinate. The management practices associated with Packard and Hewlett came to be known as the HP Way.

The HP Way: Autonomy, Trust, and the Demands of Scale

The HP Way emphasized delegated responsibility, employee trust, access to managers, management by objectives, and operating freedom for divisions. It developed over time through the founders and the organization; it was not a complete management system written at the company’s birth.

At a 1995 public forum with Hewlett, Packard recalled the founders’ early ambitions: “We did not have any master plan.” In his telling, they wanted to make useful new products and create jobs for themselves, not follow a blueprint for a large electronics company.

Packard later linked his preference for reinvesting profits and avoiding long-term debt to his experience of the Great Depression. He credited Terman with influencing some of HP’s management ideas and recalled profit sharing and direct contact with employees as parts of its culture. These were his retrospective explanations of how the business operated.

Delegation could foster initiative and cohesion, yet greater size also brought strategic complexity and new layers of management. The HP Way was an evolving set of ideals and practices, not a guarantee that a larger company would always run smoothly. That tension would draw Packard back into HP’s operations years later.

Leaving HP to Become Deputy Secretary of Defense

In 1969, Packard left his HP executive duties to become deputy secretary of defense under Secretary Melvin R. Laird in President Richard Nixon’s administration. He took on Pentagon management, budgeting, and procurement responsibilities alongside other defense officials.

The appointment drew criticism over potential conflicts of interest: Packard held substantial HP stock, and HP had defense-related business. His holdings were placed in a trust arrangement intended to address the concern. Contemporary reporting described distributions from that trust to charitable and educational institutions. The criticism was about potential conflicts, not a documented finding that Packard had committed corruption.

The Pentagon was also developing new ways to review major weapons acquisitions. The Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council began in 1969, during Packard’s tenure, and a later government audit criticized aspects of its performance. Packard was an important figure in acquisition reform, but the department’s review arrangements were not his work alone.

Packard also took part in the administration’s defense-budget decisions and its shift of war responsibilities toward South Vietnamese forces, without being the sole architect of Vietnam policy. He resigned in 1971 and returned to California. Questions about defense procurement costs and effectiveness remained unsettled.

Back to HP, with a Growing Commitment to Public Institutions

In January 1972, Packard was re-elected chairman of HP’s board. He retained that position until 1993, although he withdrew from day-to-day management in 1978. His work increasingly included commitments outside the company.

David and Lucile had founded the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 1964. Over time its work spanned science, conservation, education, community institutions, family support, and health. In 1977, the foundation organized an advisory effort in Pueblo, linking its activities to David’s hometown.

A major coastal project followed. In 1978, marine scientists, community leaders, and people connected with the Packard Foundation formed the Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation. David and Lucile made the founding personal gift toward construction, ultimately reported at $55 million, and David chaired the foundation. The aquarium was nevertheless a collaborative undertaking from its beginning.

Monterey Bay Aquarium opened on October 20, 1984. The Packards’ daughter Julie played an important leadership role in the project and the institution, alongside scientists, community supporters, and staff.

Returning to Defense Reform Through the Packard Commission

In 1985, President Ronald Reagan appointed Packard to chair the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, known as the Packard Commission. More than a decade after leaving the Pentagon, he was again examining how the Defense Department made decisions and acquired equipment—this time as the head of an advisory commission.

On June 30, 1986, the commission issued A Quest for Excellence, recommending changes to defense organization, procurement, budgeting, and accountability. Its proposals required further government action; publication did not make them established practice.

A government review in 1988 tracked the recommendations’ implementation. The continuing scrutiny showed the limits of any single commission report: Packard had helped frame problems and proposed responses, but the work of adoption and oversight remained with government institutions.

Ocean Research, Children’s Health, and Lucile Packard’s Legacy

In 1986, David and Lucile gave $40 million toward a new children’s hospital at Stanford. Lucile died of cancer on May 30, 1987; Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital opened in 1991. The hospital became one of the couple’s major shared philanthropic commitments, although Lucile did not live to see its opening.

Lucile’s involvement reached back to HP’s earliest paperwork and daily operations. Her later community work and the couple’s joint hospital gift belong in the account alongside David’s own roles.

In 1987, Packard founded the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI), a separate, independent oceanographic research organization. While the aquarium welcomed the public, MBARI brought scientific inquiry together with engineering and new ocean-observation technologies. It was not a department of the aquarium.

Across the foundation, aquarium, hospital, and research institute, the family’s support took several forms: gifts, board leadership, organizational founding, and long-term charitable work. Each institution also depended on scientists, medical professionals, other leaders, and wider communities.

When HP’s Management Principles Faced a New Test

By 1990, HP’s growing bureaucracy was straining the decentralized approach associated with its founders. Packard and Hewlett became directly involved in efforts to simplify operations and reduce management layers. Decades after the garage partnership, they were again confronting the problem of keeping a larger organization responsive.

That intervention also exposed a limit of the HP Way as a fixed ideal: management practices that suited one stage of growth needed reconsideration at another.

Lewis E. Platt became HP’s chief executive in 1992 and succeeded Packard as board chairman in 1993. On September 17, 1993, Packard stepped down as chairman at age 81 and became chairman emeritus, ending a board leadership tenure that had extended through his years away from daily management.

In 1995, Packard published The HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company, his retrospective account of the partnership and its management philosophy.

Recognition, Final Years, and a Wider Legacy

Packard received the National Medal of Technology and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988, followed by the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal in 1989. The awards recognized a public career extending beyond electronics manufacturing.

David Packard died of pneumonia at Stanford University Hospital in Palo Alto on March 26, 1996, aged 83. Lucile had died in 1987. Their four children survived him.

HP reported roughly $31 billion in 1995 revenue, far removed from the partnership’s original $538 in capital. That scale reflected the contributions of Hewlett, Packard, and generations of employees and technical teams—not the work of one founder acting alone.

From an electronics workshop to the Pentagon, and from HP’s boardroom to scientific and medical institutions, Packard’s work repeatedly involved putting people and resources together to carry out demanding projects. Those efforts were different in purpose and scale, but none was his alone: Hewlett, Lucile, employees, public officials, researchers, and other collaborators remain essential to the story.

Timeline

These milestones trace David Packard’s career, public service, and major family philanthropic projects.

1912

Born September 7 in Pueblo, Colorado.

1934

Earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford University; later worked as an engineer for General Electric.

1938–1939

Returned to Palo Alto, married Lucile Salter, and began garage-based instruments work with Hewlett in 1938. The formal partnership started January 1, 1939; Packard completed further Stanford engineering studies that year. The early Disney oscillator order belongs to this founding period.

1940–1947

HP moved out of the garage by 1940. The business incorporated in 1947, when Packard became president.

1957–1966

HP became publicly traded in 1957 and expanded into Europe by 1959. Packard became chairman and CEO in 1964, the year he and Lucile founded their charitable foundation; HP Labs was established in 1966.

1969–1972

Served as U.S. deputy secretary of defense from 1969 to 1971. Returned to HP’s board chairmanship in January 1972.

1978

Stepped away from HP’s daily management. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation was formed with support from the Packards and other founders.

1984

Monterey Bay Aquarium opened on October 20.

1985–1986

Chaired the President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, which issued A Quest for Excellence in 1986. David and Lucile also gave $40 million toward a new Stanford children’s hospital in 1986.

1987

Lucile Packard died on May 30. David Packard established the independent Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute.

1988–1989

Received the National Medal of Technology and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1988, followed by the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal in 1989.

1990–1993

Joined Hewlett in HP streamlining efforts around 1990. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital opened in 1991. Packard retired as HP chairman on September 17, 1993, and became chairman emeritus.

1995–1996

Published The HP Way in 1995. Died in Palo Alto on March 26, 1996, aged 83.

FAQs

Did Hewlett-Packard start in 1938 or 1939?

Garage instrument work began in 1938, but Hewlett and Packard’s formal business partnership started on January 1, 1939. The company incorporated in 1947.

Did David Packard invent HP’s first audio oscillator?

No. The Model 200A’s low-cost circuit came from William Hewlett’s graduate engineering work. Packard joined Hewlett in making, selling, and managing the business built around electronic instruments.

What did Hewlett-Packard sell to Walt Disney Productions?

Disney ordered eight audio oscillators for sound work associated with Fantasia. HP history identifies the Disney units as Model 200B instruments, rather than the original Model 200A.

Why did David Packard’s Pentagon appointment raise concerns?

Critics questioned whether Packard’s substantial HP holdings and the company’s defense business could create conflicts of interest when he became deputy secretary of defense in 1969. His shares were placed in a trust arrangement intended to address the concern; the sourced controversy was not a finding of corruption.

What did the Packard Commission accomplish?

Chaired by Packard, the commission issued A Quest for Excellence in 1986, recommending changes to defense organization, procurement, budgeting, and accountability. A subsequent government review tracked implementation; the report did not itself put all recommendations into effect.

When did David Packard leave Hewlett-Packard?

Packard left HP executive duties for government service in 1969, returned as board chairman in 1972, stepped back from daily operations in 1978, and became chairman emeritus in September 1993. His involvement changed over time rather than ending on one date.

Are the Monterey Bay Aquarium and MBARI the same organization?

No. Monterey Bay Aquarium, formed through a collaborative foundation project, opened in 1984. David Packard established the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) in 1987 as a separate, independent oceanographic research institution.

Interviews

David Packard and William Hewlett on Entrepreneurship and HP

This transcript records a public forum held on June 8, 1995, with Packard and Hewlett discussing their early expectations, the company’s work, and management practices. It is especially useful for understanding how Packard described the founders’ initial ambitions and his later thinking about finance and employees. Those recollections are firsthand perspectives on the business, not a substitute for the full corporate record.

Read the public forum transcript

David Packard Remembers Stanford Amateur Radio

Packard’s archived recollection concerns his amateur-radio experience and its connection to Stanford professor Frederick E. Terman. It gives readers his own account of a formative technical interest before HP existed. The recollection is useful for understanding his perspective on those early university years.

Read Packard’s radio-history recollection

Sources

• Stanford University School of Engineering: David Packard engineering biography, Stanford engineering and the early HP era
• Stanford University Amateur Radio Club Archive: David Packard’s radio recollections
• Agilent Technologies: David Packard historical profile
• IEEE Engineering and Technology History Wiki: David Packard biography
• Hewlett-Packard: A Good Forty Years, Measure (1979), HP company milestones
• Hewlett Packard Enterprise: HP history and early Disney order
• The Washington Post: David Packard Dies at 83 (1996)
• Los Angeles Times: David Packard obituary (1996), Packard retirement announcement (1993), Lucile Packard obituary (1987)
• Independent Institute: Entrepreneurship and the High Technology Revolution, 1995 forum transcript
• Computer History Museum: The HP Ways: Lessons on Strategy and Culture
• United States General Accounting Office: Critique of the Defense Systems Acquisition Review Council (1978)
• President’s Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management: A Quest for Excellence (1986)
• United States Government Accountability Office: Status of the Packard Commission recommendations (1988)
• David and Lucile Packard Foundation: Foundation history
• Monterey Bay Aquarium: Aquarium history
• Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute: MBARI history
• Stanford Medicine Children’s Health: Children’s hospital history
• Ronald Reagan Presidential Library: 1988 Presidential Medal of Freedom presentation
• United States Patent and Trademark Office: 1988 National Medal of Technology recipients
• National Academy of Sciences: David Packard Public Welfare Medal entry