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Hal Prewitt
American artist, photographer, race car driver, inventor (b. 1954) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Harold D. Prewitt, Jr (Hal) (born October 1, 1954, in Hutchinson, Kansas) is an American businessman, inventor, artist, and race car driver. In the 1970s and 1980s, he was one of the early creators of personal computer products,[1] developing popular software and hardware while providing consulting services to IBM for their first portable computer and their first desktop computer.[2]
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Prewitt founded and managed several technology firms. The largest and best known was Core International, a developer of disk arrays, computer data storage, and backup products. Core created and in 1990 marketed the world's first hot swappable disk drives, disk controllers, host adapters, and power supplies.[3][4] Prewitt served as the company's chairman and chief executive officer until 1993, when it was sold to Aiwa.[5]
Prewitt's art has been displayed in public and private venues. By 2017, reports stated that his art had more than 800 collectors and sales totaling over $2 million.[6][7] He has competed in professional and occasionally amateur motorsport road races and has driven in nearly 200 endurance racing or sprint races worldwide. He was the No. 1 American and finished 4th of 819 international drivers from 58 countries in the 2015 International Endurance Series Championship.[8] He has also had a professional sporting career in fishing.
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Early life
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Youth
Prewitt was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. His father was a veteran of World War II and the Korean War, who later worked as a mailman for the United States Postal Service and was honored as a Kentucky Colonel by the Governor of Kentucky. His mother was a nurse.[2] Prewitt grew up in the Daytona Beach, Florida, area from 1963 to 1976, where he had his first exposure to auto racing, volunteering at Daytona International Speedway. He built his first computer in 1967 at the age of 13. It performed simple math and operated his phonograph.[2]
Prewitt joined the Civil Air Patrol as a cadet and earned the second-highest rank (Cadet Lt. Colonel). He sold his first artwork, a painting, at the age of 16.[1][2]
As a teenager, Prewitt learned sailing, fishing, boating, and scuba diving and developed skills in mechanics, engineering, electronics, navigation, and construction.[1][2] He was interested in painting and photography, producing and selling a number of images.[1][2]
After graduating from high school, Prewitt continued building boats, managing his business, and began to focus on computer programming. Between 1972 and 1975, he learned various programming languages using an IBM 1130. In the early 1970s, Prewitt unsuccessfully sought venture capital in a plan to design, build, and sell small business computers at lower prices than available at the time.[1] In 1975, he built an Altair 8800. That same year, at the age of 21, Prewitt obtained his first business application customer when he sold, designed, and wrote computer programs for the IBM 5100 and System/32 as part of the business he had started at age 16. He joined the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and participated in autocross events.[2]
Education
After high school, Prewitt attended Daytona Beach Community College (1972–76), studying business and computer science, but left without earning a degree. He transferred to Florida Atlantic University (1976–78), Boca Raton, Florida, where he continued his studies in business and computer science. However, he eventually dropped out of college to focus on his business.[2]
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Business career
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Prewitt's working career began at the age of 13. He started in construction helping build homes for an Ormond Beach, Florida builder. He also worked busing tables and washing dishes before a promotion to cook at a couple of local restaurants. At the age of 16, Prewitt started his first business and as an artist sold his first painting. While attending community college, he built boats, worked as a painter, an accountant and for the yard crew at the Howard Boat Works marina. Prewitt's final jobs where he was employed by someone else were as a lab assistant helping students in his college and as a computer programmer for a company providing business applications on mainframes and minicomputers.[1][2]
Ranger Systems
Prewitt started his first business in 1970, when he was in high school. "Ranger Systems", had four divisions: Ranger Manufacturing, Business World, Rent a Houseboat and Ranger Automotive Engineering.[1][2]
He used the manufacturing part of the business to build electronics, computers, and fiberglass boats. Business World did marketing, photography, printing and advertising. Prewitt wrote brochures, shot pictures, placed ads and ran a printing press. The biggest and most profitable division was Rent a Houseboat. Prewitt took the family boat and turned it into a rental business. He sometimes used a small boat to travel to school and quickly reach the houseboat. Prewitt did everything from writing contracts to maintenance. Prewitt frequently missed classes to unstop a toilet or revive the boat engine. The automotive division focused on repairs.[1][2]
Prewitt operated Ranger Systems until 1975, when his focus switched to computer programming and the personal computer industry.[1][2]
International Computer
In 1975, Prewitt created International Computer to continue building, selling, installing and programming computers. This was the period when he started developing storage devices which ultimately became his most successful products.
He had customers that were located from mid to south Florida in manufacturing, hotel, service, legal, medical, construction and agricultural industries. Prewitt flew to their offices by initially renting aircraft and then by using his own.[1][2]
Prewitt started Southeast Computer Consultants with a partner in late 1977.[citation needed]
Core International (Core)
In late 1979, Prewitt created Core International from the assets of International Computer and Southeast Computer Consultants. Initially, Core was created as a for-profit association of owners and operators of small IBM computers. It sold mail-order computer supplies and developed software for users of the IBM 5100, 5110, and IBM 5120 systems.
Prewitt built his first computer storage product for the IBM 5100 series because the machines did not have hard disk drives.[2] Prewitt contracted with Control Data Corporation to manufacture the key component. Even though it was a niche product, the product became popular almost overnight when IBM discontinued its 5100 series and their customers turned to Core for parts and supplies. Within two years, Prewitt had sold $2.5 million worth of disk drives.
Core's second hardware and major software product also catered to the IBM orphans, a device and software that allowed IBM 5110/20 users to transfer data and programs from old bulky computers into new personal computers. Core's software was called PC51 and allowed any DOS personal computer to use, unmodified, any BASIC program written for the IBM 5110/20 series computer. IBM consequently approached Core to become an IBM dealer. Customers could buy an integrated IBM PC, which completely replaced IBM's 5100 computers, or optionally attach their 5100 to Core's local area network, connecting all machines.[1][2]
The company expanded internationally to include offices in Europe and Asia. In 1986, Inc Magazine selected Core as 21st in their annual list (Inc. 500) of the 500 fastest-growing private companies in the U.S. and were building computers and related products. By 1990, Core was well known as an industry leading developer of disk array, computer data storage and backup products.[2] COREtest became the industry standard[9] and most often quoted benchmark used to test, evaluate and compare performance of hard disk drives.[1][2]
Prewitt was chairman and chief executive officer of Core until 1993 when the company was sold[5] to Sony.[1][2]
Prewitt Enterprises
Prewitt is the Managing Member of Prewitt Enterprises, a Florida-based agricultural and investment business he founded in 2004, with offices in Boca Raton and Miami, Florida, and in Park City, Utah. The agricultural part of the business grows oranges and at its peak produced more than 1.5 million half gallon cartons of orange juice per year with much of it used in Tropicana's Pure Premium. The investment division is active in private and public businesses in both the U.S. and internationally.
Prewitt Management
In 2012, Prewitt founded Prewitt Management, a Florida-based art business with offices in Boca Raton, Florida; Miami, Florida and Park City, Utah. Prewitt's art is in a wide array of genres and mediums including oils, acrylics, pencil drawings and photography. His production sizes range from small to greater than 20 feet. His works are displayed in many public and private venues. Some of his artworks were displayed in his gallery on Main Street, Park City, Utah until the summer of 2017.[7]
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Sporting career
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Racing
Prewitt first became active in racing while growing up in Daytona Beach, Florida in the 1970s and driving in SCCA events. He became serious in 2004 after attending Skip Barber Racing School.[10]
He was a professional level driver racing for various teams in international and North American endurance road race events. From 2004 to 2006, he captured numerous lap records in SCCA, PBOC Motorsports Club and National Auto Sport Association (NASA) classes and was overall winner in the PBOC 2005 and 2006 Race Series season. In 2006 and 2007, Prewitt won numerous 1st place and class wins while racing in Historic Sportscar Racing (HSR), Rolex Endurance Series and the Historic GT Series. He won the 2006 National Auto Sport Association (NASA) National Championship at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course while driving the Porsche 911 GT3 RS that won 2nd place in class for the 2003 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Prewitt retired in 2015 after driving in more than 200 events. In his final year (2015), he finished as the No. 1 American and 4th out of 819 international drivers from 58 countries in the 2015 International Endurance Series Championship.[8] He qualified for a career total of 200 races (140 Sprint and 60 Endurance) and drove in 30 endurance events (24 hours or longer) at 33 tracks in races held by IMSA (part of NASCAR), and others in the US and international events. He has won 73 firsts, 30 seconds and 10 third places for 41% wins in 180 starts and for 63% podium finishes. He has a low 3.61% did not finish (DNF) incident rate.[11]
Fishing
Prewitt is a sport fisherman.[12] Over the years, he has caught and released more than one thousand Billfish with many of them tagged for science research. Most of these were captured "stand up", not using a fishing chair and on light tackle. Prewitt was selected as Atlantic Ocean Angler of the Year 1992, recognized and awarded by International Game Fish Association (IGFA) as the angler who Tagged & Released the most Sailfish in 1990, 1991 and 1992 and White Marlin in 1992. In 1989, Power and Motor-yacht Magazine[13] named him one of America's Top Ten Anglers of 1988.
In 1988, he won the Bahamas Billfish Championship (BBC).[citation needed] This annual award recognizes the overall champion of six tournaments located in the Bahamas held on Bimini, Cat Cay, Walker's Cay, Berry Islands and the Abaco Islands.
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Public service
Prewitt donated many of his artworks to nonprofits, who often displayed his works or auctioned them to raise funds for their organizations. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Prewitt served as a Commissioner on the Architectural and Code Enforcement Boards[citation needed] prior to his 2001 unopposed election to the Town Commission of Manalapan, Florida[14][citation needed] where he held office until the town was reapportioned in 2002.[15] Prewitt served on the Florida Atlantic University Executive Advisory Board and Palm Beach Countywide Beaches & Shores Council.[citation needed]
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Personal life
Prewitt married his first wife, Florine Andrews, in August 1980. They divorced in 2004. They have two sons, Calvin and Tim. He married Corinne Brody, an assistant county manager for Miami-Dade County,[16] in October 2007. She has a son, Alex.
Prewitt is dyslexic. He lives in South Beach in Florida
References
External links
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