[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 46 (Friday, March 29, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3213-S3214]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        TRIBUTE TO DAVID PACKARD

  Mr. NUNN. Mr. President, I rise today to pay tribute to David 
Packard, whose death on March 26 ended the distinguished career of one 
of America's

[[Page S3214]]

most innovative, visionary, and generous business leaders.
  David Packard was an outstanding public servant as well. He was 
Deputy Secretary of Defense under Secretary Melvin Laird, 1969-71, in 
what many consider one of the strongest teams ever to head the 
Department of Defense. His understanding of both broad issues and nuts 
and bolts of management was the ideal complement to Laird's knowledge 
of the Pentagon and Washington.
  More recently, Packard chaired the President's Blue Ribbon Commission 
on Defense Management under President Reagan--generally known as the 
Packard Commission. The Commission's study of the Department's 
procurement process led to the establishment of the position of 
Undersecretary for Acquisition and to the streamlining of military 
buying practices. He testified on a number of occasions before the 
Armed Services Committee and provided valuable advice on organization 
and buying procedures. He was always extremely helpful to the committee 
and to me whenever we called on him.
  A few years after their graduation from Stanford during the Great 
Depression, David Packard and William Hewlett borrowed $538 from a 
former professor and launched Hewlett-Packard in the garage of 
Packard's rented house. It is one of the great American success 
stories.
  ``We weren't interested in the idea of making money. Our idea was if 
you couldn't find a job, you'd make one for yourself. Our first several 
years we made 25 cents an hour.'' Today his company is our Nation's 
second largest computer company and Silicon Valley's biggest employer, 
with 100,000 employees around the world and $31 billion in sales last 
year.
  Packard became one of the richest men in America, but he lived 
modestly to the end, using his great wealth to follow, on a broader 
scale, the principles that guided him in managing the company--
encouraging individual creativity, providing opportunity for 
development of knowledge and skills, fostering mutual respect and 
trust.
  The key to his business success was the key to his character as well. 
The important thing was to make or do something useful. He had no 
patience with ostentation in corporate executives, nor with those who 
made short-term profits made by cutting long-term investment in 
research, new product development, customer services, or facilities and 
equipment.
  David Packard's management philosophy and methods became models for 
other companies. He viewed his employees as colleagues with ideas, 
skills, loyalty, and understanding he valued. He practiced management 
by walking the factory floor and insisted on an open-door policy in 
executive offices. Workers called him Dave and he encouraged them to 
come to him with their gripes as well as their ideas for improving 
products and operations. In return, they gave him undying loyalty and 
the benefit of their best efforts and creative ideas.
  He was semiretired through the 1980's, but he and William Hewlett 
returned to the company in 1991 when it experienced a financial slump. 
Packard was the driving force behind the reorganization that 
revitalized the company.
  When Packard retired as chairman for a second time in 1993, someone 
asked him what was his proudest moment. Instead of pointing to one of 
his many accomplishments, David Packard said simply, ``Do something 
useful, then forget about it and go on to the next thing. Don't gloat 
about it.''
  That accurately described his own approach throughout a long and 
imminently successful life. Whenever he finished doing something 
useful, he looked for something else useful to do.
  A Phi Beta Kappa, football and basketball player at Stanford, he was 
a dedicated outdoorsman all his life, and a staunch Republican. He made 
major gifts over the years to Stanford, the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and 
the Wolf Trap Foundation.
  One of his last acts, not long before he died, was to give a generous 
donation to the Paralympics that will be held in Atlanta this summer, 
the week after the Centennial Olympic games. It was typical of David 
Packard that, at 83, he was thinking about ways to encourage individual 
excellence, helping to provide talented athletes from disabled 
community the opportunity to participate in international competition.
  Our Nation is a better place because of his innovations, his 
philosophy, his example, and his dedication to both making and doing 
something useful. David Packard's character matched his physique--he 
was a giant of a man.
  His beloved wife, Lucille Laura Salter Packard, died in 1987. I know 
the Senate joins me in expressing our deepest sympathy to his children, 
who were at his side when he died: David Woodley Packard, Nancy Ann 
Packard Burnett, Susan Packard Orr, and Julie Elizabeth Packard.

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