William Norris

William Charles Norris (July 14, 1911, near Red Cloud, Nebraska – August 21, 2006) was an American business executive. He was the CEO of Control Data Corporation, at one time one of the most powerful and respected computer companies in the world. He is famous for taking on IBM in a head-on fight and winning, as well as being a social activist who used Control Data's expansion in the late 1960s to bring jobs and training to inner cities and disadvantaged communities. Early life Norris was born and raised on a cattle farm in Nebraska, attending a tiny school in Inavale, Nebraska, and operating a ham radio. He attained a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Nebraska in 1932. He spent two years on his family's farm after graduation, helping weather the Great Depression and a significant drought in the Midwest by risking the use of Russian thistle as cattle feed. Military career Norris served in the United States Navy as a codebreaker, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander while working at the Navy's Nebraska Avenue Complex in Washington, D.C. His technical accomplishments included advancing methods for identifying U-boats. Professional career Before entering military service, Norris sold X-Ray equipment for the Westinghouse Corporation in Chicago, then worked for the Bureau of Ordnance as a civil servant engineer until signing with the Naval Reserve.