Terry A. Davis

Terrence Andrew Davis (December 15, 1969 – August 11, 2018), better known as Terry A. Davis was an American programmer who created and designed TempleOS, a public domain operating system. Its development was an extremely complex, time-consuming and unusual undertaking for one person.[1][2][3]

Quick facts: Terry A. Davis, Born, Died, Education, Occupa... ▼

Terry A. Davis
Davis with a computer monitor, circa mid-1980s
Born	Terrence Andrew Davis (1969-12-15)December 15, 1969 West Allis, Wisconsin, U.S.
Died	August 11, 2018(2018-08-11) (aged 48) The Dalles, Oregon, U.S.
Education	Bachelor's degree in computer engineering (1992) and master's degree in electrical engineering (1994) from Arizona State University
Occupations	Computer programmer video blogger
Employer	Ticketmaster (1990–1996)
Known for	TempleOS
Website	templeos.org

As a teenager, Davis learned assembly language on a Commodore 64. He later earned a master's degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University and worked for several years at Ticketmaster as a programmer for VAX machines. In 1996, he began experiencing regular manic episodes, one of which led him to hospitalization. Initially diagnosed with bipolar disorder, he was later declared to have schizophrenia. He subsequently collected disability payments and resided in Las Vegas with his parents until 2017.

Davis grew up as a Catholic and was an atheist for some of his adult life. After experiencing a self-described "revelation", he proclaimed that he had been in direct communication with God and that God had commanded him to build a successor to the Second Temple. He then committed a decade to creating an operating system modeled after the DOS-based interfaces of his youth. In 2013, Davis announced that he had completed the project, now called "TempleOS". The operating system was generally regarded as a hobby system, not suitable for general use,[4] but Davis received sympathy and support for bringing the project to fruition.[2]

During his final years, Davis amassed an online following and regularly posted video blogs to social media. Although he remained lucid when discussing computer-related subjects, his communication skills were significantly affected by his schizophrenia. He was controversial for his regular use of slurs, which he explained was his way of combating factors of psychological warfare. After 2017, he struggled with periods of homelessness and incarceration. In 2018, he was struck by a train and died at the age of 48.