Roy L. Clay Sr.

1929-Present

Mathematician, Educator, Inventor

GODFATHER OF SILICON VALLEY

founder and former CEO of ROD-L Electronics, based in Menlo Park, California and a manufacturer of electrical safety testing equipment, which he founded in 1977. ROD-L set the industry standard in electrical product safety testing by producing the world’s first Safety Certified (i.e. Underwriters Laboratories Listed) Dielectric Withstand (Hipot) and Ground Continuity Testers. The company has received the Consumer Product Safety Award for developing the safest product of its kind and its products are used by the leading manufacturers of electrical and electronics equipmen. In 2003, Clay was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame.

SILICON ICON AWARD IN 2015

BIOGRAPHY

Roy L. Clay born in Kinloch, Missouri in 1929. He learned how to program computer codes while earning a degree at Saint Louis University for mathematics in 1956. Clay worked as the Research and Development at Hewlett Packard. He helped launch Hewlett-Packard’s computer division in the late 1960s and is known to some as the godfather of black Silicon Valley for helping break down barriers for African Americans in technology. The computer Clay and colleagues designed in 1965 was named 2116A, and it was about the size of a typewriter. By the time he left HP, he was the highest-ranking African American at the company.

known as the Godfather of Silicon Valley, Roy Clay Sr. was not only one of the first pioneers in the world of computer software during the late ’50s but a pioneer for African Americans breaking into the tech field. Whilst future techies such as Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were just toddlers, Roy was developing computer software.

Born in Kinloch, Missouri in 1929, Clay grew up in the Jim Crow days of the South in a home with no indoor plumbing. A good student, he was the first African American to graduate from St. Louis University in 1951 when there was no such subject as computer science. Graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, he struggled to find a job.

One of his first job interviews upon graduating was with McDonnell Aircraft. When he arrived he was told: “Mr. Clay, we are very sorry but we have no jobs for professional Negros.” He soon became interested in computing and in 1956, not to be dissuaded, he landed a job as a computer programmer for that same company.

In 1958 he obtained a job at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in California where he wrote software for the U.S. Department of Energy that demonstrated how particles of radiation would spread after a nuclear explosion. Word of Clay’s work got back to David Packard of the Hewlett-Packard Company in Palo Alto and in 1965 he recruited Clay to set up HP’s computer development business.

Clay was vital to the rise of HP in the world of technology. He wrote the software for the HP 2116A, the first computer to be sold by HP (about the size of a typewriter) and led the team that brought it to market in 1966. He established the HP software development facility, managed the computer division and guided the company’s emergence as a computer company.

In the mid-1970s, Clay discovered that Underwriters Laboratory was going to require a safety test on electrical products to ensure that they wouldn’t shock or cause a fire. Clay then formed his own company in 1977, Rod-L Electronics, to manufacture the electrical-safety test equipment. Rod-L Electronics remains in business in Mountain View where Clay is CEO. For his contributions in the field of computing, Clay was inducted in the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame in 2003.

For over 35 years Clay has been involved in serving his community. While at HP, he established programs to help African Americans get into Silicon Valley. At Rod-L, he professed that at one point, they were the largest employer of African American professionals in Silicon Valley. Clay was also involved in local politics, serving as the first African American on the Palo Alto City Council from 1973 to 1979. In 1988, Clay became the first African American member of the Olympic Club and served as club president at one point as well. He has also served as a leader of community organizations that help to improve the lives of many, such as the Mid-Peninsula Boys & Girls Club and JobTrain (then known as OICW).

Accolades

Mr. Clay is a key figure in the development of Silicon Valley and was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council’s Hall of Fame in 2003. As a Hall of Fame inductee, Mr. Clay joins such notables as Bill Hewlett and David Packard, founders of Hewlett-Packard Company; Robert Noyce, inventor of the 8080 microchip and founder of Intel Corporation; and John L. Hennessy, President of Stanford University.
In 1988, Roy Clay became the first African-American member of the Olympic Club, America’s oldest athletic club. He eventually became president of the club for a time.
Mr. Clay became the first Black American to serve as Councilman in 1973 to 1979 and as Vice Mayor of the City of Palo Alto in 1976/77.
He taught himself to code.

Philanthropy

In 1999, he founded the Virginia Clay / Unity Care Annual Golf Classic to honor his wife’s memory and to promote success for young minorities.
Mr. Clay is a community leader in youth development and has worked tirelessly for over 35 years in Silicon Valley, in leadership positions and in numerous community organizations to promote the improvement in quality of life.

Education

Mr. Clay received a Bachelor’s in mathematics from the Saint Louis University (SLU), in 1951.

Article and Photo courtesy of the Palo Alto Historical Association/Guy Miller Archives