Ray Noorda

Raymond John “Ray” Noorda was born in Ogden, Utah, on June 19, 1924, the third son of Dutch immigrants Bertus Noorda and Alida Margaretha van den Berg..  He was CEO of Novell between 1982 and 1994. He also served as chairman of Novell until he was replaced in 1994.  Noorda was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, sometimes erroneously called the Mormon Church.

During the Great Depression, Noorda worked a wide variety of jobs: in a candy shop, setting pins in a bowling alley, as a loading clerk at a train station, picking cherries, selling magazines, and even herding sheep. These early experiences instilled in him a strong work ethic that all reputable employment was honorable.   Noorda exercised leadership as a youth — he was CEO of a playground organization, and organized a little league baseball team.  He was a stand-out as a baseball player.

Noorda was invited to become a pro baseball player out of high school, but his mother forbade him, sending him on to college.  He attended Weber State College and then served active duty during World War II as an electronics technician.  Upon his return to the United States, he attended the University of Utah.  He graduated cum laude with a B.S. in engineering in 1949.  He worked for General Electric Company for 21 years.

During his years at G.E., Noorda earned a reputation for entrepreneurship, running start-ups within G.E.  After he left G.E. Noorda turned around struggling businesses, including General Automation, Boschert, Systems Industries, and more.  He began to call himself an “itinerant president.”

In 1983, Noorda assembled the “SuperSet” team whose members included Drew Major, Dale Niebaur and Kyle Powell. The team was originally assigned to create a CP/M disk sharing system, but instead came up with a successful file sharing system for the newly introduced IBM-compatible PC. This Network operating system was later called Novell NetWare.  While Noorda was CEO,  Novell acquired several companies and products with the goal of countering Microsoft’s rapid spread into new markets.   Novell took part in anti-trust action against Microsoft.  Noorda ran Novell until 1993   (Wikipedia.org). Under his leadership, Novell became a giant in the computer industry.  One of Noorda’s goals was to cultivate an industrial center for entrepreneurialism and employment opportunities in Utah.

“[Noorda] always treated each employee with respect no matter what position they held. Ray Noorda unassumingly earned many accolades as a business genius and technology visionary, and is widely recognized as one of the most important people in the computing industry. He is known as the ‘Father of Network Computing’ for his technical understanding of the emerging technology, and for his business expertise in growing the networking industry to the level of ubiquity we all take for granted today. He coined the term “coopetition”, which is now part of standard business education, to represent the win-win principles propelling such industry growth. Using his innate ability to form partnerships, Ray created the model known today in the information technology industry as ‘the Channel,’ where manufacturers and resellers grow and prosper together” (Deseret News obituary, October 16, 2006).

Noorda owned and managed the “Canopy Group” up until his death.  Canopy fostered start-up companies in Utah and elsewhere, nurturing over 100 companies.  Canopy Group held a company called Caldera, which purchase Unix assets and digital research assets once held by Novell.  Caldera successfully sued Microsoft resulting in a $275 million payoff to Caldera in the year 2000.

“Without fanfare, Ray also devoted his retirement years and a majority of his earnings to philanthropic giving, usually anonymously, through the LDS church and many charitable organizations. Ray founded Angel Partners and Worth of a Soul Foundation in order to facilitate his family‘s charitable efforts. Throughout his life, Ray’s primary goals have always been based on those lessons he learned as a depression-era boy: to create good jobs for as many people as can work, to provide quiet philanthropic assistance to those who cannot, and to direct any personal gains toward achieving those more-important ends” (Deseret News Obituary).

Ray Noorda received honorary doctorates from Weber State University and the University of Utah.  He also was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of Fame in 1995.

As a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Noorda served as a counselor in both a branch presidency and a stake Sunday School Presidency.  He married the former Lewena (Tye) Taylor in 1950. They were later sealed in the Salt Lake Temple.  They had four sons and one daughter and lived in Arizona, New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Virginia, California, and Utah.  Noorda passed away October 9, 2006, at his modest home in Orem, Utah, at the age of 82 after a struggle with Alzheimer’s Disease.