ENGINEER

Gordon Bell

1934 - 2024

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Icon of person Gordon Bell

Chester Gordon Bell (August 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024) was an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), from 1960–1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later served as the company's Vice President of Engineering from 1972–1983, overseeing development of the VAX computer systems. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Gordon Bell has received more than 224,944 page views. His biography is available in 19 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 17 in 2019). Gordon Bell is the 353rd most popular engineer (down from 314th in 2019), the 11,327th most popular biography from United States (down from 9,276th in 2019) and the 43rd most popular American Engineer.

Gordon Bell is best known as a pioneering computer engineer who led the design and development of several highly influential minicomputers and time-sharing operating systems at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) in the 1960s and 1970s. His work played a crucial role in the transition from large, expensive mainframe computers to smaller, more affordable minicomputers that helped make computing more accessible.

Memorability Metrics

  • 220k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 49.71

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 19

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 2.85

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.26

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Among ENGINEERS

Among engineers, Gordon Bell ranks 353 out of 389. Before him are Ivan Artobolevsky, Charles Portal, 1st Viscount Portal of Hungerford, Ralph Bagnold, Tom Dowd, Sergey Volkov, and Mehdi Jomaa. After him are Kevin Warwick, Pat Fry, Willy Rampf, John Lombe, James Allison, and Sydney Camm.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1934, Gordon Bell ranks 530. Before him are Peter Masterson, Ed Flanders, Ellis Marsalis Jr., Alfonso Portugal, Peter Arnett, and John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan. After him are Calvin Lockhart, Steve Lacy, Toru Goto, Carl Levin, Engelbert Kraus, and José María Maguregui. Among people deceased in 2024, Gordon Bell ranks 424. Before him are Benji Gregory, Tūheitia Paki, Adan Canto, Kelvin Kiptum, Charles Dierkop, and Sartaj Aziz. After him are Phelekezela Mphoko, George Eastham, Bob Love, David Walker, Charles Shyer, and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

Others Born in 1934

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Others Deceased in 2024

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Gordon Bell ranks 11,327 out of 20,380. Before him are Sandra Cisneros (1954), Bill Bright (1921), Scott Cooper (1970), Barrett Strong (1941), Damian Lillard (1990), and Samuel Ramey (1942). After him are Herman Cain (1945), John T. Dillon (1876), Chuck Liddell (1969), Paul Burke (1926), Ernest Tubb (1914), and Maya Lin (1959).

Others born in United States

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Among ENGINEERS In United States

Among engineers born in United States, Gordon Bell ranks 43. Before him are Jack Parsons (1914), John Houbolt (1919), Chuck Peddle (1937), Sidney Darlington (1906), Robert Zubrin (1952), and Tom Dowd (1925). After him are Robert R. Gilruth (1913), David S. Johnson (1945), Beatrice Hicks (1919), Henry M. Morris (1918), Ted Jensen (1954), and Douglas H. Wheelock (1960).

American born Engineers

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