Jack Goldman, 90, former Chief Scientist of Xerox and creator of what became Xerox PARC, died this week. John Markoff wrote the obit in the NY Times and there's a WIRED obit as well.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack on July 30, 2003, over the phone, as part of my research for my book on the history of the PLATO system. I uncovered a story Jack had intended to keep secret, that George Pake was not the actual first choice to be director of Xerox PARC, but rather, it was someone else. I have a chapter on PARC in my upcoming book, in which the decades-old secret will be revealed.

During the interview, I casually asked Goldman, who, remember, created Xerox PARC which would inspire Steve Jobs to pursue the GUI interface for Macintosh, what he used personally: PC, or Macintosh. Here was his reply, in 2003:

I use only Macintosh. If you came into my home, I have -- I still have, I never throw them out, I have a Macintosh, a Macintosh 500, a Macintosh Plus, a Power Macintosh, a PowerBook, and now I just got a new iMac, because I wanted a 17 inch screen, and the easiest way to get one was to get an iMac.

And there you have it. The creator of Xerox PARC, a Mac fanatic. I think Steve Jobs would get a chuckle out of that.