Obituary: John V. Roach, a down-home Texan who helped bring personal computers into American homes, has died
John V. Roach was one of the more modest characters involved in the birth of the personal computer. As an executive of Tandy Corp., owner of the RadioShack store chain, he sometimes quipped, “We’re just simple country boys in the computer business.”
Spurred by a RadioShack buyer named Donald French, the company in the mid-1970s began looking at the possibility of offering a low-cost computer. Mr. Roach recruited Steve Leininger, a microprocessor-system designer, to help create the machine. Top Tandy executives—including the chairman, Charles Tandy —were skeptical about the potential of computers. Mr. Roach later recalled Mr. Tandy saying, “Build 1,000, and if we can’t sell them, we will use them in the store for something.”
Mr. Roach told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in August 1977 that the new machine wasn’t just for games. For instance, it could figure out how much tile or carpeting is needed for a room, he said, or track a small firm’s inventory. It came with a 300-page manual.
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