Gordon Bell

Chester Gordon Bell (August 19, 1934 – May 17, 2024) was an American electrical engineer and manager. An early employee of Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), from 1960 to 1966, Bell designed several of their PDP machines and later served as the company's Vice President of Engineering from 1972 to 1983, overseeing development of the VAX computer systems. Bell's later career included roles as an entrepreneur, investor, founding Assistant Director of NSF's Computing and Information Science and Engineering Directorate from 1986 to 1987, and researcher emeritus at Microsoft Research from 1995 to 2015.