Douglas Carl Englebart is a computer pioneer whose inventions and innovations have had a considerable effect on the way computers are now used. Among other accomplishments, Englebart developed the mouse, hypertext, and groupware. Englebart was also involved in the development of the ARPAnet and NLS systems, making him a founding father of the Internet.

Douglas Carl Englebart was born in 1925 and raised on a small farm near Portland, Oregon. After graduating high school in 1942 Englebart studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University, a course of study interrupted by World War II. During the war Englebart served two years as an electronic/radar technician in the Philippines for the Navy. When the war ended Englebart resumed his studies and was awarded a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1948. He immediately took up a position working for the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) at the Ames Laboratory at San...