Bill English | |
|---|---|
 William English in 2008 | |
| Born | William Kirk English (1929-01-27)January 27, 1929 Lexington, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Died | July 26, 2020(2020-07-26) (aged 91) San Rafael, California, U.S. |
| Known for | Development of the computer mouse |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | SRI International'sARC Xerox PARC Sun Microsystems |
William Kirk English (January 27, 1929 – July 26, 2020) was an Americancomputer engineer who contributed to the development of thecomputer mouse while working forDouglas Engelbart atSRI International'sAugmentation Research Center.[1][2] He would later work forXerox PARC andSun Microsystems.
English was born on January 27, 1929, inLexington,Kentucky. The only son of Harry English and Caroline (Gray) English, he had two half-brothers from his father's previous marriage. Harry English was anelectrical engineer who managed coal mines and Caroline was a homemaker. William, or Bill as he was known, attended a boarding school in Arizona and then studied electrical engineering at theUniversity of Kentucky.[3]
English served in the US Navy until the late 1950s, including postings in northern California and Japan.[3] He then joined theStanford Research Institute in the 1960s to work on magnets, and built one of the first all-magnetic arithmetic units withHewitt Crane.[4] In 1964, he was the first person to join Douglas Engelbart's lab, theAugmentation Research Center.
He and Douglas Engelbart share credit for creating the firstcomputer mouse in 1963; English built the initial prototype, and was its first user, based on Engelbart's notes.[5][6] English led a 1965 project, sponsored byNASA, which evaluated the best way to select a point on a computer display; the mouse was the winner.[4][7] English was also instrumental atThe Mother of All Demos in 1968, which showcased the mouse and other technologies developed as part of theirNLS (oN-Line System).[4][8] In particular, English figured out how to connect a terminal in theSan Francisco Civic Auditorium to the host computer at SRI 30 miles (48 km) away, and also transmitted audio and video between the locations.[4][8]
He left SRI in 1971 and went toXerox PARC, where he managed the Office Systems Research Group. While working at PARC, English developed aball mouse, in which a ball replaced the original set of wheels.[2] It worked similarly to a moveable ball-based mouse device calledRollkugel, which had been developed byTelefunken, Germany, and was offered since 1968 as input device for their computers.[5][9]
In 1989, he went to work forSun Microsystems on internationalization efforts.[2]
English died of respiratory failure inSan Rafael, California, on July 26, 2020, aged 91.[3][6]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Academics | |
