Noorda

Ray Noorda of Novell, dead this week at 82, was the first famous technology personage I met. Though he wasn’t famous at that time, and, to gauge from the reaction at his passing, he’s not too famous now. I'd studied local networks in college so I knew about Novell, and got to take the meeting, even though I was junior staff .

Anyway, I have no great anecdote to share. But meeting Noorda meant a lot to me. It meant something because I was getting closer to a world I’d only read about in magazines. Not as technology maker, mover or shaker, but as a technology writer. Noorda was very polite. But polite in the manner of Gary Cooper. Sort of like a physician. Maybe he was a bit surprised that I was slightly awed.

I wrote a bit focusing on his technology maneuverings on TheServerSide.NET