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  • Hacker News
  • What a great read. RIP Bill!
    by bix6
  • Odd no mention of DFJ as started by his son, the single most familiar association with the name Draper in tech (with apologies to Charles Stark D..)
    by ricksunny
  • His father is particularly intriguing with respect to wartime / postwar history, Good bet there’s probably more content there buried in the archives worth coming out.
    by ricksunny
  • I do wish that "Silicon Valley" would have been elsewhere less useful, though. As mentioned, before it became the tech hub, the Santa Clara valley was extremely productive agricultural land that is now paved over.
    by jhbadger
  • From observing next generation drapers, Bill have done really well wrt raising good people.

    RIP Bill Draper. I never got to know you, but your legacy certainly lives on.

    by tehlike
  • Third generation of Drapers doing this, which is its own kind of rare.
    by hncbw02z5a
  • I met Mr Draper once. I was staying at the SFO hyatt, or maybe the Mariott, and had a couple hours to kill after breakfast and noticed there was some sort of conference going on, so I crashed it. I walked into a talk room and sat in the front row and introduced myself to my neighbors. On one side was Steven Levy (author of many books in the industry) and the other was Bill Draper. I don't really remember the conversation, nor even the topic of the conference - it was a brief conversation in the 5 or 10 minutes before the talk started. At the time I didn't really know who he was but I was a little star-struck by Mr Levy, and it was Levy who told me I should be more impressed by being next to Draper. Mr Draper thought that was funny and the three of us chatted a bit more about whatever. I found it interesting that Mr. Draper was a surprisingly relatable guy (particularly given what I know about him know) and that he was very insightful of technology for someone who was in his 70 or 80s at the time.

    RIP Mr. Draper. I didn't know it when we talked, but you helped make my career possible - thanks!

    by sophacles

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