Roy Clay: The Story of the Black Godfather of Silicon Valley

In the infancy of Silicon Valley, when the crowd in white pockets and khakis was busy building the foundation of technology, Roy Clay stood out.

Clay was not the product of an Ivy League school, not descended from generational wealth. He came from the tiny town of Kimoch, Missouri. And perhaps most notably among the growing ranks of techies, Clay was African American.

“There weren’t many people working during the software development period,” said Clay’s son, Chris Clay, “and even fewer people of color were working in tech at all.”

From the beginning of the tech industry, Clay used his wits and perseverance to swim against the cultural current, eventually earning the nickname the Black Godfather of Silicon Valley. Because as soon as Clay crossed the threshold of technology, he began to wave to other people of color. He achieved many successes in his life, making breakthroughs not only in technology, but also in the politics of the peninsula.

“He was always very resilient,” said son Roy Clay Jr. “He knew what he wanted and went for it, even if people told him it was impossible.”

Clay’s life is chronicled in a new book written by his sons and writer M. H. Jackson called Unstoppable, the Unlikely Story of a Silicon Valley Godfather. This is a story that tells not only about the achievements of Clay in the field of technology, but also about his views on life and sources of inspiration.

Growing up in a predominantly black city, Clay’s mother groomed him for the challenges his skin color would cause throughout his life.

“His mother told him as a teenager that he should never let racism stop him,” said Roy Clay Jr. “He will probably have to deal with this all his life.”

His mother’s prophecy came true when Clay was apprehended by the police looking for another suspect. He managed to persuade the officers to let him go.

Clay was tall, strong. He played baseball and even considered a professional career. But his love of sports was secondary to his love of math and technology. He started teaching math but wanted something more so he applied to the McDonnell Aircraft Company in St. Louis.

“When he first applied for a job at McDonnell Aircraft right out of school,” Chris Clay said, “they told him the company couldn’t hire him because they didn’t hire professional blacks.”

Clay returned to teaching, but then applied again to McDonnell, and this time he was hired.

His next job took him to the West when he was hired to write a computer program at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to analyze the potential impact of a nuclear bomb on the Bay Area. Every day, his family drove him to the airport from his home in Palo Alto, where he caught a helicopter that took him to work in Livermore.

In 1965, he applied for a job at Hewlett Packard. In his second interview, he came face to face with co-founder David Packard himself. He was hired to lead the company’s software department.

“He said that according to David Packard’s vision, he didn’t care if you were black, brown or green, whatever nationality you were,” Chris Clay said, “they were going to find the best person for any job they were looking for.”

Despite his dedication to his work, he gave way to a family with his wife Virginia and three sons. He never missed ball games or school plays. He even found time to run, becoming the first black man to be elected to the Palo Alto City Council. He told his sons that he was a “militant moderate”.

“He missed out on a lot of opportunities that would have been very lucrative,” said son Rodney Clay. “But he turned them down because it would take his family time.”

After leaving Hewlett Packard in the early 1970s, Clay Sr. founded his own company, Rod-L Electronics, which builds systems for testing electronic equipment. It was there that he earned his nickname by opening the door wide for others.

“Our business started in East Palo Alto, which was predominantly black,” Rodney said, “and he hired locals.”

In recent months, Clay was stricken with an illness that left him unable to speak. As his sons watch him go, they are also now sharing his story for him. They take some comfort in the fact that the father was able to see the finished book of his life before he fell ill.

Clay was less motivated by the goal of breaking down barriers than by simply pursuing his passions without the hindrance of racism. In any case, he left his fingerprint in Silicon Valley, which now has a diverse workforce, with more than half of all workers identifying as people of color.

“He just wanted to keep pushing the boundaries of what was possible,” said Roy Clay Jr. “He liked being first in everything.”

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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