John V. Roach (November 22, 1938 – March 20, 2022) was an American executive. He was one of the early proponents of the

personal computer A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

, launching the Tandy TRS-80.

Early life and education

John Vinson Roach II was born on November 22, 1938, in

Stamford, Texas Stamford is a city on the border of Jones County, Texas, Jones and Haskell County, Texas, Haskell counties in west-central Texas, United States. The population was 2,907 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Henry McHarg, president of t ...

, and moved to Fort Worth at the age of four. His mother, Agnes Margaret Roach nee Handon, was a nurse and his father owned a grocery store in Fort Worth. Roach studied physics and mathematics at

Texas Christian University Texas Christian University (TCU) is a private university, private research university in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was established in 1873 by brothers Addison Clark, Addison and Randolph Clark as the AddRan Male & Female College. It i ...

and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration in 1961. After working for two years at the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility in Hawaii, he returned to the university and earned a master’s in business administration in 1965. He also started experimenting with mainframes in college.

Career

In 1967, he joined the

Tandy Corporation Tandy Corporation was an American family-owned Retail, retailer based in Fort Worth, Texas that made leather goods, operated the RadioShack chain, and later built personal computers. Tandy Leather was founded in 1919 as a leather supply store ...

, a conglomerate that owned

Radioshack RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...

, as a data processing manager. In the following years, he played a key role in the company’s decision to venture into the budding personal computer market. In January 1977, he presented the original TRS-80 prototype to Tandy’s CEO Charles Tandy and Radioshack’s president

Lewis Kornfeld RadioShack (formerly written as Radio Shack) is an American electronics retailer that was established in 1921 as an amateur radio mail-order business. Its parent company was purchased by Tandy Corporation in 1962, which shifted its focus from ma ...

. At just under $600, the TRS-80 quickly became the best-selling personal computer on the market. To write the software code for the TRS-80, Tandy hired eventual Microsoft co-founders

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

and

Paul Allen Paul Gardner Allen (January 21, 1953 – October 15, 2018) was an American businessman, computer programmer, and investor. He co-founded Microsoft, Microsoft Corporation with his childhood friend Bill Gates in 1975, which was followed by the ...

. Roach became RadioShack’s executive vice president in 1978. Tandy's computer success helped Roach become CEO in 1981. In 1983 he was named chief executive and chairman of Tandy, two positions he held until 1999. After leaving Tandy, Roach briefly served as CEO of Justin Industries before retiring. In the 1990s, Roach also served as chairman of Texas Christian University’s board of trustees. In this role, he helped to double the university’s endowment to more than $1 billion and built a technology center. In 2007, the John V. Roach Honors College was endowed in his honor at Texas Christian University.

References

1938 births 2022 deaths People from Stamford, Texas Texas Christian University alumni American technology executives {{US-business-bio-1930s-stub