https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/14/technology/robert-taylor-innovator-who-shaped-modern-computing-dies-at-85.html?_r=0"His seminal moment came in 1966. He had just taken a new position at the Pentagon -- director
of the Information Processing Techniques Office, part of the Advanced Research Projects Agency,
known as ARPA -- and on his first day on the job it became immediately obvious to him what the
office lacked and what it needed.
"At the time, ARPA was funding three separate computer research projects and using three
separate computer terminals to communicate with them. Mr. Taylor decided that the department
needed a single computer network to connect each project with the others.
"'I went to see Charlie Herzfeld, who was the head of ARPA, and laid the idea on him,' Mr. Taylor
recalled in an interview with The Times. 'He liked the idea immediately, and he took a million
dollars out of the ballistic missile defense budget and put it into my budget right then and there.'
He added, 'The first funding came that month.'
"His idea led to the Arpanet, the forerunner of the internet."
While at NASA and later at Xerox PARC, Robert Taylor also played a pivotal role in innovating and
developing key elements of the modern personal computer and the graphic user interface,
including leading the group that created the pioneering Alto computer.
