I was chatting with Esther Schindler (who runs the DevSource site) and somehow Peter Norton's name came up. Having been in this industry for a while, we both had a memory of meeting him “back in the day“. Mine was when he spoke to a huge FoxPro meeting in New York City in the late 80's. I remember him standing up in front of the auditorium with his shirt sleeves rolled up and me thinking what a cool guy he was -- so laid back and at ease. This was before Symantec, in the days of Norton Utilities. I also remember being in awe of how smart he was - really understanding how computers work. The same kind of awe I have expressed in this blog about Mark Russinovich of SysInternals.
So Esther pondered, “Hmmmm, I wonder what he's doing these days...” and found a quick blurb on WikiPedia (where else?) The thing that struck me the most of this bio was the fact that Norton and his ex-wife “own one of the largest modern contemporary art collections in the nation” pieces of which are constantly on loan or part of permanent collections to museums. They also founded the Peter Norton Family Foundation which is a huge supporter of non-profit arts organizations and human social services programs as well.
I think we all fantasize about what we would do if we won the lottery. It never occurred to me to fantasize about what I would do if I made a fortune in the software industry, but I guess there's a good reason for that.