Classic Act

David Packard Jr.

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Son and namesake of Hewlett-Packard’s co-founder, David Packard Jr. inherited a big shoes legacy. As a classics professor, and later as president of the Packard Humanities Institute, he developed software to preserve ancient inscriptions by digitizing them to a searchable database. While his sisters worked with the family foundation to save marine life and conserve threatened lands from Central California to South American rainforests, Packard Jr. brought two unique cultural resources to the downtowns of Palo Alto and San Jose. Thanks to him, the Stanford Theatre was reborn as a temple for classic film and San Jose has a gorgeous symphony and opera hall at the California Theatre.