Lew Platt, one of the original minds behind IT behemoth Hewlett-Packard in its early years has passed away at the age of 64. Originally joining HP in 1966 as an Engineer in their Medical Products group, he eventually rose to the spot of CEO in 1992, and helped bring HP to the position of one of the most profitable and largest IT companies in the world. He had left his position at HP to work as a lead director at Boeing Co in 2003 (having been on their board since 1999), obviously one interested in advancing technology. HP may owe him quite a bit, as during the late 80s and early 90s they were struggling. The details surrounding this have not yet been made clear.