Richard Lee Hornor : Dec 13, 1942 to July 23rd, 2020
Dick Hornor left this world following a long battle with a Glioblastoma brain tumor. Dick entered this world in Bakersfield, California, on a cold Sunday morning in December 1942. In 1947, Dick’s father was transferred to San Francisco by his employer, Standard Oil of California (aka, Chevron). Due to a housing shortage following World War Two the family spent six months living in a downtown hotel before finding a home near Lake Merced. In 1951 the family moved “down the peninsula” to San Carlos where Dick developed an interest in amateur radio after listening to short wave broadcasts on a friend’s 1940’s vintage table model radio. He soon joined the radio club at the Carlmont YMCA where the youthful members built electronic projects under the guidance of volunteer engineers from Linkert Electric. This experience motivated Dick to obtain his amateur radio license (K6YAI) at the age of twelve. After several electronics classes in high school Dick’s interest in hands-on work led him to obtain a college degree in electronics engineering technology.
Following his graduation in 1963 Dick obtained a commercial broadcasting license after sitting through an all-day exam at the F.C.C. field office in San Francisco. This license qualified him to become the chief engineer at any U.S. based radio or television station. However, rather than lock himself into a job that did not offer much in the way of growth opportunities Dick joined Hewlett Packard as a production test engineer at HP’s Dymec Division in Palo Alto. In this position he was able to put his knowledge of radio frequency products to good use by testing a wide variety of “fresh off the line” radio and television monitors, microwave test sets and microwave frequency converters.
In 1966 Dick moved to HP’s Customer Service Center where he became a Service Engineer specializing in Instrumentation Products. When HP introduced the first computer products Dick became a Customer Engineer. It took him awhile to adjust to the digital world after spending his life in the analog world…..front panels on computer products did not have any meters, just flashing lights. In this new position Dick serviced computer products on the West Coast, from San Diego to Seattle. Because of his broad product knowledge, organizational ability and excellent people skills, in 1970 Dick was asked by HP’s Intercontinental Division (Intercon) to establish and manage the service operation for HP’s new subsidiary in the Republic of China (Taiwan). HP’s first office in the R.O.C was a hotel room. This was the first of Dick’s many international assignments.
In 1972, Dick transferred to HP Canada (HPCL) where he became the founder and region manager of the Data Products Customer Engineering operation based in Montreal. Thanks to his resume of founding multiple service operations, in 1974 Dick was asked by HPSA (HP Europe) to create and manage a service operation for HP’s new sales region in the Middle East and North Africa, based in Athens, Greece. His responsibilities included developing distributors to service all of HP’s products throughout the region as well as founding an HP subsidiary office in Baghdad, Iraq, dedicated to customer service.
When he returned from Europe in 1978 Dick joined HP Intercon again, this time as the Region Service Manager for Latin America. When Latin America headquarters moved to Mexico in 1988 Dick moved to the Worldwide Customer Service Organization (WCSO) headquarters in Mountain View where he held several management positions in hardware and software product support planning.
Following his retirement in 1999, Dick devoted most of his time to caring for his elderly in-laws and managing the administration of several family trusts. Looking back on his 36 years at HP Dick always voiced his appreciation for the wonderful opportunities that were made available to him. At the beginning of his career Dick expected to work forever in a technical position for HP in Palo Alto. To his surprise and delight he was able to see the world, living in five countries while visiting and working in more than fifty countries on five continents thanks to the trust placed in him by H & P.
Hewlett-Packard Retired Employees Club Obituary – September 2020