He wrote about heroes

In Tracy Kidder’s hometown, Williamsburg, Mass.

— Photo by John Phelan

Adapted from Robert Whitcomb’s “Digital Diary,’’ in GolocalProv.com

Tracy Kidder, who died March 24 at 80, started to become famous as the author of brilliant nonfiction books with The Soul of a New Machine (1981), about the development of a new superminicomputer by a team of engineers at Data General Corp. (based in Westboro, Mass.), one of many now long-dead tech companies. Other famous extinct ones include Digital Equipment Corp., based in Maynard, Mass., and Wang Laboratories, based in Lowell, Mass.

Mostly because of the technology complex in the Boston area spawned by its universities, Massachusetts became one of the world’s greatest centers of the digital revolution. Though it mostly missed the boat on the personal-computer revolution,  which was based on the West Coast – in Silicon Valley and Seattle – the region continues to be a key area for digital development. That will continue, whatever the Trump regime and other malign forces do to try to hurt our region. While Kidder’s  book was published long ago, it still provides an encouraging look at why New England continues so good for innovation.

Much of his writing involved very admirable, even heroic, individuals and their institutions in New England, particularly in western Massachusetts, where he lived. But his reporting about local situations had/has universal resonance.
 

Now, at a time when so many of our leaders wallow in selfishness, to read about Kidder’s compassionate and visionary characters (though they were tough when they had to be)  is edifying.