Joseph Thomas "Tom" West III (22 November 1939 – 19 May 2011) was the protagonist of the Pulitzer Prize

Pulitzer Prize

The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...

 winning non-fiction

Non-fiction

Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...

 book The Soul of a New Machine

The Soul of a New Machine

Tracy Kidder's non-fiction book, The Soul of a New Machine, chronicles the experiences of an engineering team racing to design a next generation computer under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure. This machine was eventually launched in 1980 as the Data General Eclipse MV/8000...

. West worked for Data General Corporation

Data General

Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...

 as a hardware engineer and vice president, retiring as Chief Technologist in 1998. West died at the age of 71 in his Westport, Massachusetts

Westport, Massachusetts

Westport is a town in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 15,532 at the 2010 census.The village of North Westport lies in the town.- History :...

 home of an apparent heart attack. He is survived by two daughters, one of whom is Jessamyn West

Jessamyn West (librarian)

Jessamyn Charity West is an American librarian and blogger, best known as the creator of librarian.net and for her unconventional views of her profession...

.

Further reading

Twenty-year retrospective of The Soul of a New Machine

The Soul of a New Machine

Tracy Kidder's non-fiction book, The Soul of a New Machine, chronicles the experiences of an engineering team racing to design a next generation computer under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure. This machine was eventually launched in 1980 as the Data General Eclipse MV/8000...

, with "where are they now?" segments on the people involved and on Data General

Data General

Data General was one of the first minicomputer firms from the late 1960s. Three of the four founders were former employees of Digital Equipment Corporation. Their first product, the Data General Nova, was a 16-bit minicomputer...

. 1996 interview with West.