The Godfather of Silicon Valley – Roy Clay Sr.’s Unstoppable Journey

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The facts, then. Roy Clay Sr. was born on August 22, 1929, in Kinloch, Missouri, the oldest incorporated African-American community in the state. His family had no running water and a toilet until he was 12. He did his schoolwork by candlelight. Despite experiencing racism throughout his childhood, his mother told him: “You will face racism the rest of your life, but don’t ever let that be a reason why you don’t succeed”.

He became one of the first African-Americans to graduate from Saint Louis University, earning a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1951 . But his credentials did not protect him from discrimination. At a job interview for McDonnell Aircraft, he was taken aside and told: “Mr. Clay, I’m very sorry, we don’t hire professional Negroes”.

He taught himself to code. In 1958, he was a programmer at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, working on radiation tracking software to map the aftermath of a nuclear explosion. His work caught the attention of David Packard, co-founder of Hewlett-Packard. In 1965, Packard recruited Clay to set up HP’s computer division.

Clay led the team that developed the HP 2116A, HP’s first computer and only the second 16-bit computer on the market. He was the first director of the HP R&D Computer Group and the highest-ranking African-American at the company. He was among the first to recruit from historically Black colleges and universities. He was also among the first to design flexible work schedules, a policy that became known as “flex time”.

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In 1971, Clay left HP to form a consulting business. He advised venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins on investments that became tech giants like Intel and Compaq. In 1977, he founded ROD-L Electronics, a manufacturer of electrical safety test equipment. At one point, it was one of the largest employers of Black professionals in Silicon Valley.

Clay was also the first African-American elected to the Palo Alto City Council in 1973 and served as vice mayor in 1976. He was the first African-American member of the Olympic Club in San Francisco . He received a death threat after joining but stayed, inspired by his wife’s reminder of Jackie Robinson. In 2003, he was inducted into the Silicon Valley Engineering Council Hall of Fame.

Roy Clay Sr. died on September 22, 2024, at age 95 . He was called the “Godfather of Silicon Valley”. He was a technical genius who broke racial barriers and recruited generations of diverse talent. And he lived by his mother’s advice: never let racism be a reason you don’t succeed.

Sources:

• Wikipedia – Roy Clay (2020)
• USA Today – Roy Clay Sr. dies at 95 (2024)
• MNIT – African American Leaders in Tech: Part 2 (2020)
• Black Enterprise – A Forefather to the Modern Day Personal Computer (2015)
• Barnes & Noble – Unstoppable: The Unlikely Story of a Silicon Valley Godfather (2022)
• Forbes – From Ferguson To Silicon Valley (2015)
• USA Today – The race to save Silicon Valley’s untold Black history (2023)
• CBS News – Sons of “Godfather of Silicon Valley” create children’s book (2025)

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