{{Short description|American computer scientist}} {{Infobox person | name = Bill Godbout | image = Bill_Godbout.png | caption = Godbout in a 1985 episode of {{nowrap|''Computer Chronicles''}} | birth_name = | birth_date = {{birth date|1939|10|2}} | birth_place = Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2018|11|8|1939|10|2}} | death_place = Concow, California, U.S. | education = | alma_mater = {{hlist|Providence College|MIT}} | occupation = | known_for = {{hlist|Godbout Electronics|S-100 bus products}} | website = }} '''William Joseph Godbout''' (October 2, 1939 – November 8, 2018)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.fold3.com/image/738093595/ |title=Draft Registration Card |publisher=Selective Service System |via=fold3.com |url-access=subscription |date=March 1958 |accessdate=January 11, 2026}}</ref> was an American computer designer and computer company executive. He is remembered as an early computer pioneer and entrepreneur, known for manufacturing and selling computer equipment, parts, and electronic kits in Silicon Valley, during the 1970s and 1980s.<ref>http://www.imsai.net/history/quinn/quinn-1.htm {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200207040007/http://www.imsai.net/history/quinn/quinn-1.htm |date=2020-02-07 }} the Surplus Connection</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://opencollector.org/history/homebrew/Chapter9.html |title=Archived copy |access-date=2009-07-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091114063607/http://opencollector.org/history/homebrew/Chapter9.html |archive-date=2009-11-14 }} Selling surplus parts</ref> He is featured in the book ''The Silicon Boys, 1999'', by David A. Kaplan about the pioneers of Silicon Valley.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.namebase.org/xgli/Bill-Godbout.html |title=Bill Godbout |work=NameBase |access-date=2012-01-20}}{{dead link|date=February 2017|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Godbout and his company, Godbout Electronics (later CompuPro and Viasyn), were very influential in the early years of the personal computer market.<ref>{{cite journal | last = Shea | first = Tom | title = Q&A: William Godbout | journal = InfoWorld | volume = 6 | issue = 21 | pages = 64 | date = May 21, 1984 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uS4EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA64 | issn = 0199-6649}}</ref><ref name="pournelle198504">{{cite news | url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1985-04/1985_04_BYTE_10-04_Artificial_Intelligence#page/n351/mode/2up | title=Over the Moat | work=BYTE | date=April 1985 | access-date=14 February 2015 | author=Pournelle, Jerry | pages=355}}</ref> Together with George Morrow, he worked on the very popular S-100 bus.<ref>http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s100bus.html the development of the S-100 bus</ref>

==Early life== Godbout was born on October 2, 1939, in Providence, Rhode Island.<ref name=REGISTER/> He served in the United States Army and attended Providence College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).<ref name=honorary>{{cite magazine |url=https://pcdc.providence.edu/_flysystem/repo-bin/2024-02/cp_19840528.pdf |magazine=Providence College: The Sixty-Sixth Commencement |title=Honorary Degrees |page=4 |date=May 28, 1984 |accessdate=January 11, 2026 |via=providence.edu}}</ref>

==Career== {{pic|Godbout Electronics wordmark.svg|Logo of Godbout Electronics}} After college, Godbout went straight into a job at IBM,<ref name=REGISTER/> but found himself "involuntarily recalled" to active military duty in 1961 and subsequently spending most of the 1960s in the military, being discharged in 1968. Deciding not to return to a big company, although still holding IBM in esteem, he moved to the San Francisco Bay Area to assist in turning around a company in financial difficulties, an operation which concluded successfully. With the same team, he subsequently founded another business in Oakland, and, after selling this business, enjoyed a period of semi-retirement until a friend, Mike Quinn, introduced him to the electronics surplus business in which he became fascinated.

In 1973, Godbout established Godbout Electronics in the San Francisco Bay Area,<ref name="computerlanguage198412_godbout">{{ cite magazine | url=https://archive.org/details/Computer_Language_Issue_04_1984-12_CL_Publications_US/page/n64/mode/1up | title=A conversation with CompuPro's Bill Godbout | magazine=Computer Language | date=December 1984 | access-date=10 March 2022 | last1=Starr Ridley | first1=Regina | pages=63,65–66 }}</ref> out of a Quonset hut at Oakland International Airport.<ref name=REGISTER/> ''The New York Times'' called it a "popular electronics store."<ref name=VICTIMS>{{cite news|title=A 'Perfectly Imperfect' Life: The Victims of the California Wildfires|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/14/us/wildfire-victims.html|access-date=November 19, 2018|newspaper=The New York Times|date=November 14, 2018}}</ref> According to the Vintage Computer Federation, he was "a legend in the S-100 community for his 1970s-1980s work at Godbout Electronics and CompuPro."<ref name=COMPUPRO>{{cite news|title=Camp Fire: Searching for the missing, remembering the dead — now at 56|url=https://www.mercurynews.com/2018/11/14/camp-fire-searching-for-the-missing-remembering-the-dead/|access-date=November 19, 2018|newspaper=The Mercury News|date=November 15, 2018}}</ref> For his store, he purchased bulk discarded electronics largely from military suppliers.<ref name=REGISTER/> Godbout "sold chips and memory boards by mail and did business with developers on a handshake basis."<ref name=FIRE>{{cite news|title=Fire in the Valley: The Birth and Death of the Personal Computer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-g5QDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22bill+godbout%22&pg=PT176|publisher=Pragmatic Bookshelf|date=October 20, 2014|isbn = 9781680503524}}</ref> {{pic|CompuPro logo.svg|Logo of CompuPro}} After renaming the company CompuPro, he worked with George Morrow to develop the S-100 data bus, the IEEE-696. The S-100 bus was sold as part of the Altair 8800 kit machine.<ref name=REGISTER/> Godbout manufactured S-100 compatible cards, which "formed the backbone of early systems like the Altair 8800 and homebrew machines, allowing techies to interface their processors and memory with peripherals and form useful microcomputers."<ref name=REGISTER/> {{pic|Viasyn wordmark.svg|Logo of Viasyn}} In the 1980s, Godbout focused on networking and moved his company, renamed Viasyn, to Hayward, California. He was chairman of the business. Viasyn focused on custom computing equipment for “things like medical offices, the early electronic music scene, and even niche areas like elevator control systems."<ref name=REGISTER/>

==Personal life and death== In 1984, Godbout was awarded an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Providence College.<ref name=honorary/> Later in life, he lived in the community of Concow, California, with his wife Karen. The couple had a daughter, Brandi.<ref name=REGISTER/> Godbout was a keen pilot, and would often fly planes with his friend Gary Kildall.<ref name=REGISTER/>

Godbout was killed on November 8, 2018, when the Camp Fire burned down his home and workshop in Concow.<ref name=REGISTER>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/11/18/bill_godbout_obituary/?ICID=ref_fark|title=RIP Bill Godbout: Cali wildfire claims the life of master maverick of microcomputers |website=The Register|date=November 18, 2018|language=en|access-date=November 19, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://vcfed.org/wp/2018/11/13/r-i-p-bill-godbout-79/|title=R.I.P. Bill Godbout, 79 – Vintage Computer Federation|website=vcfed.org|date=13 November 2018 |language=en-US|access-date=2018-11-13}}</ref> He was survived by his wife and daughter.<ref name=ABC>{{cite news|title=Silicon Valley microcomputer pioneer dies in Camp Fire|url=https://abc7news.com/silicon-valley-microcomputer-pioneer-dies-in-camp-fire/4698268/|publisher=ABC 7 News|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181119010726/https://abc7news.com/silicon-valley-microcomputer-pioneer-dies-in-camp-fire/4698268/|archive-date=2018-11-19|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== *{{YouTube|gwPo3gQropU|Video of The Computer Chronicles with Bill Godbout as one of several guests.}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godbout, Bill}} Category:1939 births Category:2018 deaths Category:People from Providence, Rhode Island Category:United States Army personnel Category:Providence College alumni Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:American computer scientists Category:American business executives in technology Category:American businesspeople in the computer industry Category:Deaths from fire in the United States