A few years after he co-founded ROLM in 1969, Silicon Valley technology pioneer Ken Oshman made a bold gamble: The maker of rugged military computers would change course, heading straight into a telecommunications market dominated by AT&T.
The little start-up defeated the phone Goliath, stunning the industry and creating a legacy that valley veterans continue to revere. "It was a very risky move," recalls Oshman's friend Burton McMurtry, a retired venture capitalist. "A lot of unsuccessful companies had attempted to somehow computerize telephone systems. But Ken led that effort and . . . made it work very efficiently."
Malin Kenneth Oshman, MS '65, PhD '68, died August 6 from complications of lung cancer. He was 71.
Oshman was born in Kansas City, Mo., and adopted not long after by a dentist and his wife who raised him and an adopted younger brother in Rosenberg, Texas. In 1962, he graduated summa cum laude in electrical engineering at Rice University and set his sights on Harvard Business School. But fate, and fellow Rice engineering grad McMurtry, MS '59, PhD '62, intervened.
McMurtry had moved to the Bay Area to work for GTE Sylvania in Mountain View as part of a program that also paid for graduate studies at Stanford. Thrilled by the opportunity, he recruited fellow Rice graduates to join him. Oshman worked at Sylvania until co-founding ROLM with Rice classmates and Stanford colleagues. Gene Richeson, MS '65, Oshman, Walter Loewenstern, MS '63, PhD '66, and Robert Maxfield, MS '66, PhD '69, contributed the first letter of their last names to spell ROLM.
His elder son, Peter, notes that Oshman didn't allow his work accomplishments to interfere with "a normal life with his family, who meant the most to him." Oshman's family foundation was the lead donor in a campaign to build Palo Alto's Jewish Community Center, which opened in 2009 and was named in the family's honor. Stanford was also a recipient of his service and philanthropy; Oshman served as a past president of the board of the Stanford Alumni Association.
He is survived by his wife of 49 years, Barbara; sons Peter and David, '95; four grandchildren; and his brother, Rick.
Tracy Seipel is a writer for the San Jose Mercury News.
