May 1, 1996 12:00 PM

David Packard, co-founder and chairman emeritus of Hewlett-Packard (HP), died March 26 at Stanford University Hospital. He was 83. Packard had been hospitalized since March 16 and was being treated for pneumonia and complications.

In 1939, with William Hewlett, he founded an electronics company in a garage in Palo Alto, CA. The first product, an innovative audio oscillator, improved engineers' ability to develop and test sound systems. One of the fledgling company's first orders was from Walt Disney Studios, which used eight HP oscillators in developing the soundtrack for the movie Fantasia.

The company grew into a multinational enterprise with more than 100,000 employees and a fiscal 1995 revenue of $31.5 billion. The company frequently is cited for excellence in personnel practices, business management, product quality and service--all legacies of Packard's influence.

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