Another technology visionary has passed on. Jack Tramiel, the founder of Commodore Business Machines, has died at the age of 83. The driving force behind one of the best-selling home computer systems in history, Tramiel was a pioneer in creating affordable hardware for the everyday consumer that still possessed enough horsepower to push the envelope. Tramiel was a true American success story that started with nothing in his pocket to become one of the leading experts in the computing industry.

Born on the 12th of December, 1928 in to a Jewish family that resided in Poland, Tramiel was just eleven-years old when and thousands of others were interred into the Auschwitz concentration camp. Both of his parents died during the tragic experience. Tramiel survived long enough to be rescued by the 84th US Infantry Division in 1945. After the hostilities ended, he emigrated to the US in 1947 believing that he could accomplish anything after surviving.

After working as a taxi driver in New York for some years, Tramiel bought a Bronx-based storefront so that he could repair office equipment to take advantage of the skills he had learned in the Army to make money. In just two-years, he had made enough to found Commodore Business Machines to sell typewriters in North America. After selling adding machines and calculators and getting burnt both times by suppliers like Texas Instruments, Tramiel bought MOS Technology and began developing processors which led to the creation of the wildly popular VIC20 and Commodore 64 computers. Of course, as many of you know, Commodore went on to create the highly sought after Amiga line of media computers, which helped to cement the it in the history books as one of the most influential companies of the early computing era.

Known for the famous quote “It’s time to create computers for the masses, not the classes,” Tramiel is often credited with the explosion of home computing in the world.

A prototypical rags-to-riches story, it’s safe to say that Tramiel was indeed able to accomplish anything he put his mind to.

via Computer World