Raymond J. Noorda's face does not grace any U.S. currency, but the retired chairman of Provo-based Novell Inc. has one thing in common with Alexander Hamilton, whose visage appears on the $10 bill: They were both named Friday to the 1995 Junior Achievement National Business Hall of Fame.
Junior Achievement annually designates a small group of business leaders to be inducted as Hall of Fame laureates.This year, Noorda joins Philip Caldwell, retired chairman of Ford Motor Co.; and Dr. P. Roy Vagelos, retired chief executive officer of pharmaceutical firm Merck & Co., as the living honorees.
Posthumous honors will be awarded to William L. McKnight, former chairman of 3M Corp.; Frank W. Woolworth, founder of retail chain Woolworth's Corp.; Frederick L. Maytag, founder of Maytag Appliances; and Hamilton, founder of the Bank of New York, the New York Post and the nation's first Treasury secretary.
Including the seven named this year, 162 members have been inducted into the Hall of Fame over the past 21 years. The selections of honorees are made by the board of editors of Fortune magazine at the request of Junior Achievement. This year, they will be inducted April 20 before 1,500 business leaders at ceremonies in Minneapolis at the group's annual convention.
The laureates' accomplishments are honored in a permanent, interactive educational exhibit at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Joshua Kohnstamm, spokesman for host chapter Junior Achievement of The Upper Midwest Inc., said Noorda was selected by the Fortune board for his pioneer work in "essentially creating" the information networking industry through Novell Inc.
"As chairman, Noorda is credited with steering Novell from its former hardware business into the high-margin network software arena, pioneering technology which allows incompatible personal computers to communicate through a single network," said the board.
"Noorda, who came to Novell in 1982 to help save the floundering Utah-based computer maker, is credited with increasing income to $1.7 billion a year."
Noorda, 70, removed himself from the company's day-to-day operations last April, citing personal reasons. He stepped down as chairman in August and retired from the board of directors in November. Former Hewlett-Packard executive Robert J. Frankenberg is now chairman, president and CEO of Novell, which acquired WordPerfect, another Utah County software maker, last year.