Robert Taylor ( computer scientist ) Robert Taylor ( born 1932 ) was director of ARPA 's Information Processing Techniques Office ( 1965-69 ) , founder and later manager of Xerox PARC 's Computer Science Laboratory ( CSL ) ( 1970-83 ) , and founder and manager of Digital Equipment Corporation 's Systems Research Center ( 1983-96 ) . Bob Taylor was born in Texas , the son of a Methodist minister . Taylor was trained as an experimental psychologist and mathematician and his earliest career was devoted to brain research and the auditory nervous system . After working for a defense contractor , Martin Marietta , and after he submitted a research proposal to NASA , Taylor was invited to joined NASA in 1961 . J.C.R. Licklider and Taylor co-authored the seminal paper , `` The Computer as a Communication Device , `` Science and Technology , April 1968 . In 1984 , Taylor , Butler Lampson , and Charles P. Thacker received the ACM Fellows Award `` For conceiving and guiding the development of the Xerox Alto System demonstrating that a distributed personal computer system can provide a desirable and practical alternative to time-sharing. '' In 1999 , he received the National Medal of Technology `` For visionary leadership in the development of modern computing technology , including computer networks , the personal computer and the graphical user interface. '' In 2004 , he won the Charles Stark Draper Prize together with Alan Kay , Butler W. Lampson , and Charles P. Thacker `` For the vision , conception , and development of the first practical networked personal computers . ``  This biographical article relating to a computer specialist is a stub . You can help Wikipedia by expanding it . External links Article from kurzweilai.net Building the Internet A biography of Robert Taylor The New Old Boys From the ARPAnet Extract from 'Tools for Thought ' by Howard Rheingold Categories : Computer specialist stubs | Taylor , Robert ( computer scientist ) 