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Published on 12/04/1995 All articles from this issue

Silicon Valley pioneer, Benard Oliver, dead at 79

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Town Crier Staff ReportBenard M. (Barney) Oliver, who directed research at the Hewlett-Packard Corporation for four decades, died of heart failure at his Los Altos Hills home on Thanksgiving Day. He was 79.

Trained as an electrical engineer, Dr. Oliver was pivotal in the flowering of modern technology in the Silicon Valley. It was under his leadership the first hand-held calculators were produced at Hewlett-Packard in the early 1970's. Later in his career, he founded biosys, Inc., a company specializing in biological controls for agriculture, and turned his attentions to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.

After completing his studies at Stanford and receiving a doctorate in 1940 at California Institute of Technology, he joined the Bell Telephone Laboratories in New York. He initially worked on schemes for improving the quality of then-new television systems, but shifted his attentions to radar after America became involved in the Second World War.

His enthusiasm for this work caused him initially to reject an invitation by fellow Stanford alumni William Hewlett and David Packard to join their growing electronics company in Palo Alto. But a year later, in 1957, he was named a Vice President, and joined the Board of Directors.

Dr. Oliver held more than 50 patents and was the architect of much of the ground-breaking technical development at Hewlett-Packard. He is best known for his work on the HP-35, the first hand-held calculator.

In 1986, Oliver received the National Medal of Science for his work. He also served as a Vice President and later as President of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

At the same time he was developing miniaturized calculators, Oliver co-directed a summer study at NASA's Ames Research Center on a scheme to use radio telescopes to search for evidence of advanced extraterrestrial societies. The study, called Project Cyclops, became the basis for much of the modern SETI effort. Prominent among these was an ambitious NASA program for which Dr. Oliver served as a senior manager.

In 1993, when congressional action ended NASA involvement in SETI, Oliver was instrumental in finding philanthropic funding to continue part of the experiment under the auspices of the non-profit SETI Institute in Mountain View. At the time of his death, he was working as a Senior Scientist for Project Phoenix, as the privatized search is called.

Dr. Oliver served on the Palo Alto School Board and was a supporter of the Los Altos Repertory Company, where his wife Priscilla Suki Newton often performed.

He is survived by his three children, Karen Newton Oliver of Vancouver, B.C., Gretchen More Oliver of San Francisco and William Eric Oliver, also of San Francisco.

A memorial service was held Dec. 1 at the First United Methodist Church in Palo Alto.

The family requested donations be sent to the SETI Institute, 2035 Landings Drive, Mountain View, 94043.