
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 25, 1990                   TAG: 9003252074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short

AN WANG, INVENTOR, DEAD AT 70

An Wang, a shy inventor whose one-man shop set above a hardware store grew under his leadership into a billion-dollar competitor in the world computer market, died Saturday of cancer. He was 70.

Wang died at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he was admitted March 6 after a setback in a long fight against cancer of the esophagus, said hospital spokesman Martin Bander.

Wang was a holder of more than 40 patents and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in March 1988. He received the Medal of Liberty from President Reagan.

He was "quiet, humble, brilliant, decisive, caring, a great man, a one-of-a-kind person," said Paul Guzzi, a Wang spokesman sometimes called his right-hand man. "I think all of us who have been associated with him know he was a great man."

Wang, a slight, Chinese-born engineer, began Wang Laboratories Inc. in 1951.

He developed the magnetic core, which was the basic element of computer memory until the microchip was introduced in the late 1960s.

Wang felt strongly enough about his company to fire his own eldest son, Frederick, as chief operating officer and president after huge losses were posted in the late 1980s.

The growth of Wang Laboratories accelerated in 1964 after Wang introduced a desktop calculator. He steered his company around the plunge of the calculator market by focusing on the development of office computers.

"Looking at the results of the company over a long period of time, clearly, you have a visionary there," said Tobey Choate, vice president of information technology consulting at Arthur D. Little Inc.

by CNB