Black History Month

Recognizing Black Leaders of our Industry

Black history month is an important time to highlight the achievements and contributions of African Americans throughout our history. As a black owned business, RCR feels it is necessary to acknowledge a few of the black leaders who have paved the way in our industry.

Roy L. Clay

Often referred to as the “Godfather of Silicon Valley,” Clay, is widely recognized as the lead developer of the Hewlett-Packard (HP) 2116A minicomputer. Clay’s contributions propelled the company’s entrance to the computer market and he was later inducted into Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame

https://garage.hp.com/us/en/news/roy-clay-black-history-silicon-valley.html

Emmit McHenry

McHenry is well known for writing the code that made it possible for anyone to search the internet or send/receive e-mails, without extensive knowledge of computer coding. In more simple terms, he created what is known today as “.com.”

https://www.tulsapeople.com/city-desk/creator-of-com/article_3e7f5d1c-5139-11ec-a8a4-c7f78f66a208.html

Marian Croak

One of Croak’s major contributions to the industry is her work on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) technologies. VoIP technology allows us to stream audio over the internet, rather than relying on traditional phone lines. This is widely used in our cellphone and video conference communications today. Croak is currently a Vice President of Engineering at Google.

https://www.invent.org/inductees/marian-croak

This is in no way an exhaustive list of contributions that African Americans have made to the world of technology and computer science. If you are interested in learning more, feel free to check out some of the links below:

https://www.infoworld.com/article/3606070/hidden-figures-7-black-programmers-you-should-know.html

https://newrelic.com/blog/nerd-life/black-history-month-computer-science-infographic

https://code.org/blackhistorymonth

Photo Sources:

https://www.blackentrepreneurprofile.com/people/person/roy-l-clay-sr

https://www.interprisepartners.com/emchenry

https://www.invent.org/inductees/marian-croak

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