NATHAN MYHRVOLD PhD ORAL HISTORY - The Computerworld ...

DNM: Today is Thursday, May 28, 1998. This is an oral history interview for the
Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History with Dr. Nathan
Myhrvold, Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft Corporation. I’d like to begin the
questioning by having you talk to us about where you were born and some of your
earliest childhood memories.
NM: Well I don’t remember any details of my birth, fortunately. My mother tells
me that from the time I was two years old on I said I wanted to be a scientist. I can’t
honestly remember saying it when I was two, but certainly all my life that I do
remember; I wanted to be a scientist. I was very interested in science and
mathematics. At various points I found one part of science or math or related fields
more exciting than the other, but it was always something in that area that excited
me.
DA: Please tell us when were you born, and where, and if you can give us your
parents and your sibling’s names, just for the record.
NM: I was born in Seattle, Washington on August 3, 1959. I have one brother,
Cameron, my mother Natalie brought both us boys up. When I was about two we
moved to Southern California and I grew up in Santa Monica, California from that
point on. Well actually I should say I was young there. There are those who say I
haven’t fully grown up yet, so.
DA: And your mom was pretty special I understand.
NM: Well I sure think so. Everybody thinks his or her mom is special, but my
mother particularly was. She was a fashion model actually, for Jantzen swimsuits,
which you’d certainly never know looking at me. She was also a schoolteacher, and
while I was growing she would teach for various private schools in Los Angeles area.
Part of the reason she was a schoolteacher is that she got a break on the tuition for
sending us kids, Cameron and myself, to school.
DA: Do you remember, is there any particular learning experience that you
remember before you really started school?
NM: My grandmother taught me to read. She lived with us, and she had been a
schoolteacher. So she taught me to read, and I think that was probably the single
most important thing.
Nathan Myhrvold
Oral History
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