Alan Kotok Life and Career (ESOC210)

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

1941

Father owned a hardware store that he enjoyed spending time in and he also had a love for model railroads

Life of Alan Kotok

Period: 1941 to 2006

Started at MIT at age 16

1958

Joined MIT Model Railroad Club

1958

Joined the Signals and Power Subcommittee which allowed him access to the TX-0 computer where he would develop many of his computer programming skills
Among many other accomplishments, he and his fellow club members developed a chess game

Becomes student staff programmer on the TX-0

1961

Receives his Bachelors of Science in Electrical Engineering from MIT

1962

Takes job at Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC)

1962

After completing his undergraduate degree, Kotok was hired by Digital Equipment Corporation where he would work for 34 years. Starting off as one of the original employees, he would achieve positions such as chief engineer on projects.
https://www.computerhistory.org/pdp-1/alan-kotok/

Receives Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from MIT

1965

Principal Architect on the PDP-10 family of computers

1966

Taught course at University of California, Berkeley

1975

Logic Design course
Taught 1975-1976 academic year

Married Judith McCoy

1977

Received Masters of Business Administration (MBA) from Clark University

1978

VAX 8600 was released

1984

This was the highest-performance computer produced by DEC at the time and Kotok was the system architect on the project

Founding of the World Wide Web Consortium

1994

Kotok was instrumental in this
https://www.w3.org/Consortium/facts.html

Became associate chairman as W3C

1997

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
https://www.w3.org/2006/05/Kotok/AlanArchive.html

Died from a Heart Attack

May 26, 2006

Survived by his two daughters (wife passed away five months prior)
http://news.mit.edu/2006/obit-kotok