As mentioned in my last blog, last week I attended a program called “The HP Phenomenon,” sponsored by the Los Altos History Museum. It featured a panel of gentlemen who had worked for HP as contemporaries and friends of Dave Packard, and basically, they spent the evening telling stories about Packard. There was a lot of laughter that night.

I had heard many of the stories, and I learned some new ones. One of my favorites was Dave Kirby’s account of HP’s listing on the New York Stock Exchange in 1961. (Packard hired Kirby in 1962 to start a public relations department at HP. Before that, HP had been using a public relations agency, and Kirby was working on the HP account.)

Here, essentially, is the story Dave Kirby told, condensed from an old interview we have in the HP Archives.

“HP went on the exchange in '61 while I was still at the agency. It was considered enough of an event that I went to New York to be there for it.

Something funny happened in connection with HP going on the exchange. When a company goes on the exchange, at the opening bell—which in those days was probably ten o'clock in the morning—it is announced that the ABC company is coming on the exchange, and the first sale of the day is in the stock of that company, and it's shown up on the board. The principals of the company are actually down on the trading floor.

Hewlett-Packard people were going to go down to the exchange and participate in this event. Several of us had breakfast at the Essex House up by Central Park. Packard, Noel Eldred, Ed Van Bronkhorst, Hewlett, Barney Oliver and I were at breakfast, after which we left the hotel and Dave Packard said, ‘Why don't we take the subway downtown? It might be fun,’ and he started off down the street to the subway entrance. He takes long strides, and we were all running after him.

We got on the subway, but to get to the stock exchange, a transfer was necessary. A discussion ensued about where to get off and where to transfer, and there was a disagreement about it. At some point, we transferred and got on another subway. Shortly thereafter, we realized that wasn't the best route, so we got off the subway about four blocks from the Exchange. Packard by this time was running and we were all trailing behind.

We had a 9:00 meeting scheduled with Keith Funston, president of the New York Stock Exchange, to chat about the company. He was going to bring some people in for us to meet.

Well, we didn't get there until 9:15, and Dave Packard likes to be punctual! We were escorted upstairs into Keith Funston's huge office, which had thick carpet and portraits around the walls. He got up from his desk—he knew Packard—and Packard shook his hand and said, ‘Keith, I'm sorry we're late. We got lost on the subway.’

I think Keith Funston thought it was a joke—he started to laugh—and then he realized it was for real! He must have thought, ‘Here are these country bumpkins coming into the big city. They don't know anything about what life is like’"

Then Kirby said, “Most companies would have two limousines out in front of the hotel!”

In the HP Archives we have a picture of this event, which took place on March 17, 1961. Left to right are Dave Packard, New York Stock Exchange President Keith Funston, and Mortimer Marcus, HP stock specialist. Note the “HWP” on the board. That was HP’s ticker symbol until our merger with Compaq, when the symbol was changed to HPQ.