Special: 1987 Golden Spoon Awards

SPECIAL:- . -. 1987.' GOLDEN SPOON. AWARDS ,"., -,"'.' ,~_..' . , J. 1 THE ACHIEVERS By Bonnie Welch HAL PREWITf A ComputerWhiz Kid ChallengesThe BigBoys rowing up in Ormond Beach, Hal Prewitt en ing people I'm right," he says. "That's the key to my joyed taking things apart to see how they success, I think." worked. Washing machines, radios, cars - they Harold Dean Prewitt, the oldest of four boys, remem all fell prey to a curiosity worthy of Tom Sawyer. bers his early life in the Daytona Beach area as idyllic. "It G"My parents never stopped me, but they got mad if I was all open country around there then," he says, didn't put everything back together again," he says. recalling how he swam, fIshed and sailed his summers Prewitt liked building things, too. In 1967, when he away. His father, a Navy career man now deceased, was 13, he put together a crude computer - a giant, retired there and began working for the post offIce. His cumbersome box complete with flashing lights. "1 mother, HelEm, who still lives in Ormond Beach, is a thought all computers had to have flashing lights," registered nurse. Prewitt says, grinning at the memo "He was a good boy," his moth ry. The computer may have looked a er says of Prewitt. "Very determined, bit ridiculous, but it worked. It did Prewitt's computer career stubborn. You've met people who the simple math Prewitt disliked so b · h· N h could do anything? Jack of all trades'? much in school and even operated egan m IS teens. ow e Well, he could do anything." his phonograph. h ds ft· f· His seventh grade teacher nick- Today, at 33, Prewitt is still build- ea a as -growmg rrm named him "Hal" after the human ing computers with boyish enthusi- that is challenging the like spaceship computer in the movie asm, and he's making a lot of money IBMs of the world. 2001: A Space Odyssey because of his doing it. He is founder and president keen interest in computers. of Core International in Boca Raton, While he showed an early aptitude an eight-year-old manufacturer of ._ for technical endeavors, though, business computers and software. With 1986 sales of $20 school was far from Prewitt's favorite activity. His grades million, Core was ranked by Inc. magazine this year as fluctuated from A's to F's depending on how interested 21st among the nation's 500 fastest growing private he was in the subject. In the ninth grade he was told he companies.· couldn't enter the 10th unless he took remedial reading Core's personal computer recently was rated by PC and writing that summer. "School was boring," Prewitt Magazine as the best-performing computer out of four says. brands considered serious threats to IBM. And the com That attitude changed little as time passed. Prewitt was pany is well known for its high performance, high-priced much happier puttering in a garage than toiling in the hard disk drives, the lightning-fast mass data storage and classroom. At 15, before he had a driver's license, he retrieval devices used in computers. rebuilt the engine of a neighbor's Fiat after it was Core's growth has been as precocious as Prewitt pronounced unsalvageable. For a year he drove the car himself. Only eight years ago he was operating Core out along the back roads around Daytona. Later he sold it for of his bedroom. Today the fIrm occupies a spacious a profIt. Prewitt also joined the local Civil Air Patrol and two-story building on Federal Highway in Boca Raton. It learned to fly an airplane. employs 70, up from 25 just two years ago. And Core As a high school student, he had more spending ,,~ soon will open a European headquarters in Paris, with money than the average student because of a business he branch offIces in Great Britain and West Germany, to operated along the Tomoka River renting out the family oversee a rapidly expanding sales and service network. houseboat. "I started the houseboat business to pay for a By outward appearances, Prewitt still seems more a car," Prewitt says. The business had its drawbacks backyard tinkerer than the head of a computer enter Prewitt frequently missed classes to unstop a toilet or prise. At work he dresses casually in boat shoes and revive the boat engine. sports shirt, Without socks or tie. Inwardly, though, Prewitt went on to spend four years at Daytona Beach Prewitt is as aggressive and confIdent as a polished New Community College, where he randomly chose courses York banker. "I've never had to spend any time convinc and dropped the ones he didn't like. He left in 1976 to 30 FLORIDA TREND/ AU2ust 1987 r"ur" U"'UIW nJ./t'nn.."nJ. ....... , THE ACHIEVERS attend Florida Atlantic University in zine. Showing a picture of the Boca Raton. He didn't graduate from freighter Mercedes being sunk off the either school. "1 didn't care about a Prewitt caught IBM's coast of Florida to make an artificial degree," he says. "1 had ruled out the reef, Prewitt's ad declared, "Boca Ra fact that I was going to work for attention in 1985 when ton, home of the IBM PC, needs a someone else." he dumped 2,000 disk fishing and diving reef, too. The One of his teachers, Dr. Robert Great Recall: IBM PC-AT Hard Disk Cameron Jr., program manager of drives in the ocean. Drives. We're gonna deep-six thou computer science at Daytona Beach sands of 'em. Simply because that's Community College, remembers where they belong." Prewitt as a go-getter. "He was al industry. Impressed, IBM ap The stunt proved irresistible to al ways working on something and too proached Core to become an IBM most 2,000 computer owners. Prew busy learning on his own to bother dealer. itt dumped their trade-ins in the with the course work," he says. Shortly after, IBM owners began ocean off the coast of Boca Raton, While he was at FAD, Prewitt complaining that the disk drives for adding insult by using a borrowed worked as a computer programmer, the new, much celebrated IBM AT boat from an unsuspecting IBM em and when he left he started a com personal computers were defective. ployee. Prewitt refers to his secret puter consulting company with a Whole sections of data would disap dumping ground as the world's first classmate, David Street. Long hours pear or not be stored at all. Although high technology artificial reef. and low profits sapped their spirits, IBM refused to acknowledge any "1 felt bad that people might think and after two years they dissolved problem then or now, PC Magazine we are IBM haters," says Prewitt, the business. (Street now is a manag began reporting customer dissatis whose building sports an aquarium er in Core's research and develop faction in March 1985. Later, IBM with a mini-reef of disk drives in the ment department.) switched to a new supplier and CMI lobby. "It's not true. They paid for In 1979 Prewitt met his wife, Flo Inc., IBM's exclusive supplier of disk their mistakes dearly. My company rine, when she cut in line ahead of drives, went out of business. was small then and unknown. I him at the auto dealership where Prewitt, as an IBM dealer, was on probably wouldn't do it again." they were getting their cars repaired. the front end of those complaints and Prewitt probably won't have to do Florine joined him in business, and immediately began canvassing other anything like it again. He projects together they built Core Internation companies in search of a better disk domestic sales of $40 million for next al. They sold mail-order computer drive. When he couldn't find one, he year and European sales - now in supplies and developed software for decided to design his own. "the millions" - are expected to rise users of the IBM 5100 computers, the It wasn't an easy task. IBM kept dramatically once the overseas sales forerunners of today's personal com the inner workings of its computer a and service network is established. puters. "It started out in the bed secret. With no manual or blueprint, (Prewitt declines to reveal profit fig room, then moved into the living it took Prewitt and his band of help ures of his company.) room and then consumed the whole ers four years to design the first disk Core's reputation is on solid foot house," Prewitt says of the business. drive that was compatible with the ing, although buyers of Core prod They were lean times. Dinner out IBM AT personal computer. The ucts frequently mention their high and a movie were a luxury. "We used drives were heavier and, Core said, prices. The most expensive Core disk to eat, sleep and work," Prewitt says. better. Industry publications extolled drive runs $8,995, more than 20 "That was all." During this time, their virtual risk-free data storage times higher than its cheapest com Prewitt contracted with Control Data capacity and a speed several times petitor. Corp. to produce Core's first hard faster than IBM's drives. PC Week, a weekly computer ware product, a customized Core But the computer world didn't beat newspaper, using an auto analogy, disk drive for the IBM 5100. It was a a path to Prewitt's door. Serious says prices for Core disk drives put niche product that became popular computer users liked the Core prod them in "Maserati-ville." Core sales almost overnight when IBM discon uct, but IBM still was king among the men acknowledge the pricey image tinued its 5100 series and users masses.

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