Bill Godbout

William Joseph Godbout (October 2, 1939 – November 8, 2018) 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. He is featured in the book The Silicon Boys, 1999, by David A. Kaplan about the pioneers of Silicon Valley.

Godbout and his company, Godbout Electronics (later CompuPro and Viasyn), were very influential in the early years of the personal computer market. Together with George Morrow, he worked on the very popular S-100 bus.

Early life Godbout was born on October 2, 1939, in Providence, Rhode Island.

Career

After college, Godbout went straight into a job at IBM, out of a Quonset hut at Oakland International Airport. 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." For his store, he purchased bulk discarded electronics largely from military suppliers.

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. He was survived by his wife and daughter.