It’s easy to forget that pioneers like Shugart literally formed the DNA that the Valley was built on, from the hard charging mentality formed out of a belief that anything was possible to the discarding of business traditions like wearing a tie to work. It’s sad to see a generation of entrepreneurs pass away, but only made more sad by the fact that few people under 35 in this business today would recognize the name Al Shugart and what he accomplished.

MercuryNews.com | 12/14/2006 | DISK DRIVE PIONEER LED SEAGATE:

But the life of the disk drive pioneer, who died Tuesday at 76, could hardly have been more complex: He epitomized the Silicon Valley play hard/work hard ethos, wearing Hawaiian shirts to the office even as he weathered decades of ups and downs in a notoriously cutthroat industry.