This news really hits me hard. Ken was a great entrepreneur and a friend to my family. He hired my father (Dick Hustvedt) out of Xerox to come join DEC in the early 70's. Ken tapped my dad for VMS.

To me Ken was always one of those grandpa mentor types quick to engage and share his business wit. I remember how the DEC hackers would always talk about how Ken inspired a culture of intrapreneurs within the company, pushing engineers to feel free to create new products and businesses from within rather than acquiring.

It was a different era, but the stories of the guys and gals that stayed up all night coding away at The Mill really made my love for tech. There was a passion for what they did, not for the payday.

DEC was also one of the first startups funded by the modern idea of VCs.