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Staff

Project Editor: Jennifer Mossman

Senior Editor: Terrie M. Rooney

Editorial Staff: Frank V. Castronova, Leigh Ann DeRemer, Andrea Kovacs Henderson, Katherine H.Nemeh,

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Research Manager: Victoria B. Cariappa

Research Specialist: Barbara McNeil

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Imaging Specialist: Mike Logusz

Manager of Technology Support Services: Theresa A. Rocklin

Programmers/Analysts: Mira Bossowska and Jeffrey Muhr

While every effort has been made to ensure the reliability of the information presented in this publication, The Gale Group does not guarantee the accuracy

of the data contained herein. Gale accepts no payment for listing; and inclusion in the publication of any organization, agency, institution, publication,

service, or individual does not imply endorsement of the editors or publisher. Errors brought to the attention of the publisher and verified to the satisfaction

of the publisher will be corrected in future editions.

This publication is a creative work fully protected by all applicable copyright laws, as well as by misappropriation, trade secret, unfair competition, and

other applicable laws. The authors and editors of this work have added value to the underlying factual material herein through one or more of the following:

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defended.

Copyright © 2000

Gale Group, Inc.

27500 Drake Road

Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535

ISBN 0-7876-3183-3

ISSN 1099-7326

Gale Group Inc., an International Thomson Publishing Company.

Gale Group and Design is a trademark used herein under license.

Printed in the United States of America

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ITPTM

INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii

ADVISORY BOARD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

OBITUARIES ......................... xiii

TEXT................................. 1

HOW TO USE THE INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . 443

INDEX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 445

CONTENTS

The study of biography has always held an impor￾tant, if not explicitly stated, place in school curricula.

The absence in schools of a class specifically devoted

to studying the lives of the giants of human history be￾lies the focus most courses have always had on people.

From ancient times to the present, the world has been

shaped by the decisions, philosophies, inventions, dis￾coveries, artistic creations, medical breakthroughs, and

written works of its myriad personalities. Librarians,

teachers, and students alike recognize that our lives are

immensely enriched when we learn about those indi￾viduals who have made their mark on the world we live

in today.

Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement, Vol￾ume 19, provides biographical information on 200 in￾dividuals not covered in the 17-volume second edition

of Encyclopedia of World Biography (EWB) and its sup￾plement, Volume 18. Like other volumes in the EWB

series, this supplement represents a unique, compre￾hensive source for biographical information on those

people who, for their contributions to human culture

and society, have reputations that stand the test of time.

Each original article ends with a bibliographic section.

There is also an index to names and subjects, which cu￾mulates all persons appearing as main entries in the

EWB second edition, the Volume 18 supplement, and

this supplement—nearly 7,400 people!

Articles. Arranged alphabetically following the let￾ter-by-letter convention (spaces and hyphens have been

ignored), articles begin with the full name of the person

profiled in large, bold type. Next is a boldfaced, de￾scriptive paragraph that includes birth and death years

in parentheses and provides a capsule identification

and a statement of the person’s significance. The essay

that follows is approximately 2000 words in length and

offers a substantial treatment of the person’s life. Some

of the essays proceed chronologically while others con￾fine biographical data to a paragraph or two and move

on to a consideration and evaluation of the subject’s

work. Where very few biographical facts are known,

the article is necessarily devoted to an analysis of the

subject’s contribution.

Following the essay is a Further Reading section.

Bibliographic citations contain both books and period￾icals as well as Internet addresses for World Wide Web

pages, where current information can be found.

Portraits accompany many of the articles and pro￾vide either an authentic likeness, contemporaneous with

the subject, or a later representation of artistic merit. For

artists, occasionally self-portraits have been included.

Of the ancient figures, there are depictions from coins,

engravings, and sculptures; of the moderns, there are

many portrait photographs.

Index. The EWB Supplement Index is a useful key

to the encyclopedia. Persons, places, battles, treaties,

institutions, buildings, inventions, books, works of art,

ideas, philosophies, styles, movements—all are indexed

for quick reference just as in a general encyclopedia.

The Index entry for a person includes a brief identifica￾tion with birth and death dates and is cumulative so

that any person for whom an article was written who

appears in volumes 1 through 18 (excluding the volume

17 index) as well as volume 19 can be located. The

subject terms within the Index, however, apply only to

volume 19. Every Index reference includes the title of

the article to which the reader is being directed as well

as the volume and page numbers.

Because EWB Supplement, Volume 19, is an ency￾clopedia of biography, its Index differs in important

ways from the indexes to other encyclopedias. Basi￾cally, this is an Index of people, and that fact has sev￾eral interesting consequences. First, the information to

which the Index refers the reader on a particular topic

is always about people associated with that topic. Thus

the entry ‘Quantum theory (physics)‘ lists articles on

INTRODUCTION

vii

people associated with quantum theory. Each article

may discuss a person’s contribution to quantum theory,

but no single article or group of articles is intended to

provide a comprehensive treatment of quantum theory

as such. Second, the Index is rich in classified entries.

All persons who are subjects of articles in the encyclo￾pedia, for example, are listed in one or more classifica￾tions in the index—abolitionists, astronomers, engi￾neers, philosophers, zoologists, etc.

The Index, together with the biographical articles,

make EWB Supplement an enduring and valuable

source for biographical information. As the world moves

forward and school course work changes to reflect ad￾vances in technology and further revelations about the

universe, the life stories of the people who have risen

above the ordinary and earned a place in the annals of

human history will continue to fascinate students of all

ages.

We Welcome Your Suggestions. Mail your com￾ments and suggestions for enhancing and improving the

Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement to:

The Editors

Encyclopedia of World Biography Supplement

The Gale Group

27500 Drake Road

Farmington Hills, MI 48331-3535

Phone: (800) 347-4253

viii INTRODUCTION ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD BIOGRAPHY

ix

John B. Ruth

Library Director

Tivy High School Library

Kerrville, Texas

Judy Sima

Media Specialist

Chatterton Middle School

Warren, Michigan

James Jeffrey Tong

Manager, History and Travel Department

Detroit Public Library

Detroit, Michigan

Betty Waznis

Librarian

San Diego County Library

San Diego, California

ADVISORY BOARD

Photographs and illustrations appearing in the Encyclo￾pedia of World Biography Supplement, Volume 19,

have been used with the permission of the following

sources:

American Stock/Archive Photos: Jimmy Dorsey, Sugar

Ray Robinson, Lana Turner

AP/Wide World Photos: Eddie Bauer, L.L.Bean, John

Berryman, Paul Bowles, James Cain, Ernesto Cardenal,

Henri Cartier-Bresson, Joan Ganz Cooney, George

Cukor, Imogen Cunningham, James Dickey, J.P. Don￾leavy, Michael Eisner, Jose Feliciano, Bill Ford, Lou

Gerstner, Red Grange, Florence Griffith-Joyner, Jim Hen￾son, Tommy Hilfiger, Whitney Houston, Ron Howard,

Faisal Husseini, Mike Ilitch, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Joseph

Kennedy, William Kennedy, Norman Lear, Viola Li￾uzzo, Malcolm Lowry, George Lucas, Lucky Luciano,

Shannon Lucid, Sean MacBride, Stanley Marcus, Wyn￾ton Marsalis, Marlee Matlin, Scott McNealy, James

Michener, Glenn Miller, Robert Mondavi, Chuichi

Nagumo, Patricia Neal, Paavo Nurmi, Gordon Parks,

T. Boone Pickens, Ferdinand Porsche, Jr., Hal Prince,

Richard Pryor, Ma Rainey, Pete Rozelle, Gerhard

Schroeder, Wallis Simpson, Thomas Sowell, Wallace

Stegner, George Steinbrenner, Casey Stengel, Helen

Stephens, Martha Stewart, David Trimble, Matt Urban,

Atal Behari Vajpayee, Jack Warner, Thomas John Wat￾son, Jr., Steve Wozniak, Chien-Shiung Wu, Darryl F.

Zanuck

APA/Archive Photos: Connie Mack

Archive Photos: Moshood Abiola, Harold Arlen, Max

Beerbohm, Richard Branson, Lenny Bruce, Lepke

Buchalter, Roy Campanella, Steve Case, Florence Chad￾wick, Chai Ling, Joan Crawford, E.L. Doctorow,

Gertrude Ederle, Eileen Ford, Lou Gehrig, George Gipp,

Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie, Ben Hogan, Grace Kelly,

Jack Kevorkian, Ernie Kovacs, Oscar Levant, William

Levitt, Louis B. Mayer, Michael Milken, Billy Mills, Stan

Musial, Richard Reynolds, Maurice Sendak, Nawaz

Sharif,Eunice Kennedy Shriver, W. Eugene Smith,

Preston Sturges, Arthur Tedder, Gloria Vanderbilt,

Vercingetorix, Gianni Versace, Helmut Werner, Helen

Wills,Aldolph Zukor

Archive Photos/Reuters: Helen Thomas, Alfred Eisen￾staedt

Jerry Baur: Ngaio Marsh, Walker Percy, Jean Rhys

Les Brown Enterprises, Inc.: Les Brown

Country Music Foundation, Inc.: Jimmie Rodgers

Steve Dipaola 1998/Nike, Inc.: Phil Knight

Fisk University Library: Elijah McCoy

General Electric: Jack Welch

The Granger Collection, New York: Jan Matzeliger

Henry Grossman: Isaac Stern

HarperCollins Publishers Inc.: Shel Silverstein

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis: Derek Jacobi, Paul

Poiret, Mary Quant

International Portrait Gallery: Richard Hughes

The Kobal Collection: Lon Chaney, Douglas Fairbanks,

Jean-Luc Godard, Mae West

Library of Congress: Clarence Birdseye, Herman Hol￾lerith, Belva Lockwood, Alice Paul, Mary Pickford

Hugh Lofting, Literary Estate of: Hugh Lofting

Macmillan Children’s Books Group: Marguerite Henry

Netscape Communications: Marc Andreessen

Penske Motorsports, Inc.: Roger Penske

Queens Library, Long Island Division: Lewis Latimer

Ken Settle: Stevie Wonder

Transcendental Graphics: Ted Williams

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

xi

UPI/Corbis-Bettmann: Robert Ballard, Rosa Bonheur,

Adolphus Busch, Maureen Connolly, Alice Evans, Al￾fred Fuller, Barron Hilton, Maggie Kuhn, Suzanne

Lenglen, Candy Lightner, Bill Pickett, Ethel Andrus, Vin￾cent Bendix, William Bernbach, Harold Courlander,

Charles Dow, H.J. Heinz, Konosuke Matsushita, Conde

Nast, Maurice Richard, Walter Short, Cornelia Otis Skin￾ner, Carl Spaatz, Ed Sullivan, Stella Walsh, Pat Weaver,

Edward Weston, Ryan White

USHMM Photo Archives: Albert Speer

Carl Van Vechten, the Estate of: Mahalia Jackson

xii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD BIOGRAPHY

The following people, appearing in volumes 1-18 of the

Encyclopedia of World Biography, have died since the

publication of the second edition and its volume 18

supplement. Each entry lists the volume where the full

biography can be found.

ABZUG, BELLA (born 1920), liberal lawyer and uncon￾ventional politician, who worked energetically for civil

and women’s rights and served three terms as a mem￾ber of the U.S. Congress, died of complications follow￾ing heart surgery at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Cen￾ter in New York, New York, March 31, 1998 (Vol. 1).

BLACKMUN, HARRY (born 1908), U.S. Supreme Court

justice who became a passionate defender of the right

to abortion, died of complications following hip re￾placement surgery in Arlington, Virginia, March 4, 1999

(Vol. 2).

BRADLEY, TOM (born 1917), first African American

mayor of Los Angeles, who won election five times and

served a record 20 years in office, died of a heart attack

at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center

in Los Angeles, California, September 29, 1998 (Vol. 2).

CARMICHAEL, STOKELY (born 1941), American civil

rights activist who stood at the forefront of the Black

Power movement of the 1960s, died of cancer in

Conakry, Guinea, November 15, 1998 (Vol. 3).

DIMAGGIO, JOE (born 1914), American baseball star

whose 56-game hitting streak with the New York Yan￾kees in 1941 made him an indelible American folk

hero, died of lung cancer at his home in Hollywood,

Florida, March 8, 1999 (Vol. 5).

HUGHES, TED (born 1930), eminent British poet who

led a resurgence of English poetic innovation and was

named poet laureate in 1985, died of cancer at his

home in North Tawton, England, October 28, 1998

(Vol. 8).

HUSSEIN IBN TALAL (born 1935), third ruler of the

Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, was the longest-ruling

monarch of his time and one of the most skillful politi￾cians of the second half of the 20th century, died of

cancer in Amman, Jordan, February 7, 1999 (Vol 8).

KUBRICK, STANLEY (born 1928), American film direc￾tor who won acclaim for films he directed during the

1950s, but was best known for his later work including

Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and A Clock￾work Orange, died at his home in Hertfordshire, Eng￾land, March 7, 1999 (Vol 18).

KUROSAWA, AKIRA (born 1910), Japanese film direc￾tor who was noted for his visually arresting and intel￾lectually adventurous evocations of Japan’s mythic past

and agonized present, died of a stroke at his home in

Tokyo, Japan, September 5, 1998 (Vol. 9).

MARTIN, WILLIAM McCHESNEY, JR. (born 1906),

American business executive and federal government

official, directed major financial institutions and played

a prominent role in shaping national economic policy

in the 1950s and 1960s, died of respiratory failure at his

home in Washington, DC, July 27, 1998 (Vol. 10).

MURDOCH, IRIS (born 1919), British novelist and

philosopher, whose works portrayed characters with

warped and dreamlike perceptions of reality, died at a

nursing home in Oxford, England, February 8, 1999

(Vol. 11).

POWELL, LEWIS F., JR. (born 1907), U.S. Supreme

Court justice who led the moderate center faction dur￾OBITUARIES

xiii

ing his 15-year tenure, died of pneumonia at his home

in Richmond, Virginia, August 25, 1998 (Vol. 12).

ROBBINS, JEROME (born 1918), a major creative force

on both the Broadway and ballet stages, who extended

the possibilities of musical theater and brought a con￾temporary American perspective to classical dance,

died of a stroke at his home in New York, New York,

July 29, 1998 (Vol. 13).

SHEPARD, ALAN (born 1923), the first American in

space, whose historic 1961 flight was immortalized in

the book and movie, The Right Stuff, died of leuke￾mia at a hospital in Monterey, California, July 21, 1998

(Vol. 14).

WALLACE, GEORGE CORLEY (born 1919), governor of

Alabama and presidential candidate who built his po￾litical career on segregation, died of respiratory failure

and cardiac arrest at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery,

Alabama, September 13, 1998 (Vol. 16).

ZHIVKOV, TODOR (born 1911), the Communist ruler

of Bulgaria from 1954 until his ouster in 1989, died of

complications following a respiratory infection at a hos￾pital in Sofia, Bulgaria, August 5, 1998 (Vol. 16).

xiv OBITUARIES ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD BIOGRAPHY

Moshood Abiola

The political turmoil endured by the citizens of Nige￾ria during the final decades of the twentieth century

was led by a varied group of individuals. One of the

most influential was Moshood Abiola (1937–1998),

a Nigerian businessman educated in Scotland. He

climbed to the top of several corporate ladders,

building a political and financial empire.

Moshood Kashimawa Olawale Abiola was born

into a poor family in Abeokuta, Ogun State, Ni￾geria on August 24, 1937. Abiola received his

primary education at Baptist Boys’ High School and earned

a scholarship to attend the University of Glasgow, Scotland,

where he received a degree in economics. Abiola was

raised in the Yoruba Muslim faith; the southern part of

Nigeria where he was brought up is divided primarily be￾tween Christian and Muslim believers. Known for his out￾spoken political stances, Abiola lobbied the United States

and several European nations in 1992, demanding repara￾tions for their enslavement of African people and recom￾pense for the fortunes made in harvesting Africa’s raw

materials.

Muslim Marital Traditions

Following common tradition, Abiola took four wives;

Simibiat Atinuke Shoaga in 1960, Kudirat Olayinki

Adeyemi in 1973, Adebisi Olawunmi Oshin in 1974, and

Doyinsola (Doyin) Abiola Aboaba in 1981. He is said to

have fathered over 40 children from these four marriages.

Abiola’s second wife, Kudirat, was murdered in the capital

city of Lagos in 1996. There was speculation that her death

was caused by the military, but no proof was ever found. His

third wife, Doyin, ran a newspaper chain he owned until it

was closed by the government. In 1992, Abiola was ordered

to pay $20,000 a month in child support to a woman who

claimed to be his wife. His lawyers argued in a New Jersey

court that Abiola had only four wives; this woman was just

one of his 19 concubines.

A Businessman and Entrepreneur

Abiola was considered to be a genial businessman who

amassed a fortune through his association with various en￾terprises, including publishing, communications, and oil.

With his educational background in accounting, he easily

assumed the position of deputy chief accountant at Lagos

University Teaching Hospital from 1965 to 1967, and

comptroller of Pfizer Products, Ltd. between 1967 and

1969. In 1969, he became the comptroller of International

Telephone and Telegraph (ITT), Nigeria, Ltd., and rapidly

rose to become vice president for ITT’s Africa and Middle

East branch. He was also chairman and chief executive

officer of ITT Nigeria, Ltd. from 1972 through 1988. During

this period Abiola founded and sat as chairman of Concord

Press of Nigeria Ltd. and served as chief executive at Radio

Communications Nigeria. While employed with ITT, he

was frequently admonished by the general public due to the

dreadful condition of the Nigerian telephone system.

Abiola’s detractors claim he profited financially at the ex￾pense of the citizens by using inferior materials and keeping

extra profits for himself; charges he adamantly denied.

Much of Abiola’s fortune, which was estimated at close

to $2 billion, he freely distributed to others. He is said to

have sent over 2,500 students through the university system

as well as donating money to charities and championing

A

1

sporting events. His generosity earned Abiola the nickname

‘‘Father Christmas’’ among the citizens of Nigeria. In addi￾tion to his generosity, Abiola was considered an astute busi￾nessman. For over 20 years he carefully cultivated friends

throughout the country. He considered himself well liked by

the Nigerian military establishment, a miscalculation that

would cost him dearly.

Political Struggles

Nigeria, the most populous country on the African

continent, obtained its freedom from Britain in 1960. Dur￾ing the four decades that followed, it endured several major

political crises, including the collapse of civilian rule in the

1960s and the collapse of the civilian-headed ‘‘Second

Republic’’ in the 1980s. Both of these crises were acceler￾ated by civil violence in Yoruba, the southwestern district of

the country. Historically, north-south conflicts have pep￾pered Nigeria, as political power has been held by the

north, the headquarters for the country’s military. Abiola,

who hailed from the southern district of Yoruba, brought a

different perspective to the country’s political makeup. His

cultivation of people on both sides of the north-south divide

ultimately proved to be beneficial.

A Bid for Democracy

In 1993, the Nigerian government was undergoing

another in a series of attempts at stabilization. Major Gen￾eral Ibrahim Babangida, together with Nigerian political

leaders, inaugurated the Transitional Council and the Na￾tional Defense and Security Council (NDSC). These govern￾ing bodies were designed to exist until democratic elections

could be held to choose a president. On January 5, 1993,

the process of screening over 250 presidential candidates

was begun by the National Electoral Commission (NEC.)

The NEC banned previous candidates and parties from cam￾paigning, and so the long process began.

By the end of March, Abiola was chosen by the Social

Democratic Party (SDP) as their candidate. The National

Republican Convention (NRC) chose Bashir Othma Tofa

and the elections were scheduled for June 12, 1993. The

results clearly showed Abiola to be the winner. Babangida,

wishing to continue military rule, petitioned the High Court

to delay the elections, and on June 16 the announcement of

the results was postponed. In defiance of the court order, a

group called Campaign for Democracy released the elec￾tion results, declaring Abiola to be the winner, with 19 of 30

states supporting him. Less than a week later the NDSC

voided the election, supposedly to protect the legal system

and the judiciary from being ridiculed both nationally and

internationally. Both the U.S. and Great Britain reacted to

this violation of democratic principles by restricting aid to

Nigeria. Abiola, believing himself to have been given a

mandate from the voters, joined the Campaign for Democ￾racy in calling for voters to perform acts of civil disobedi￾ence in an attempt to force the election results to stand. In

response, Major Babangida used the authority he still re￾tained to ban both Abiola and Tofa from participating in any

new elections.

On July 6, 1993, Nigerian leaders demanded that both

parties agree to participate in an interim national govern￾ment. They reluctantly agreed and, on July 16, plans were

announced for a new election, but immediately abandoned.

On July 31, Babangida, president of the NDSC, announced

an interim government would take effect on August 27. He

stepped down on the day before the new government took

effect, handing power over to a preferred loyalist, Chief

Shonekan.

Nigerians supporting Abiola demanded that power be

turned over to him as the rightful winner of the original

election. That election was considered by many to have

been the cleanest in Nigeria’s history and was praised as a

concerted effort to overcome ethnic and religious divisions

throughout the country. A. O. Olukoshi, a professor at the

Nigerian Institute of International Affairs in Lagos, com￾mented on the election and the majority win by Abiola,

saying ‘‘Abiola allowed us to rise above ethnic and religious

differences . . . this was the first time a Yoruba has been able

to win votes both in the east and the north.’’ By this point,

Abiola had traveled to London where he denounced the

entire process. Throughout August 1993, Nigeria was para￾lyzed by strikes and unrest, and came almost to a standstill.

Abiola remained abroad for several months, finally return￾ing to Nigeria at the end of the year. In November 1993,

Chief Shoneken was overthrown by General Sani Abacha,

as the military once again seized power in Nigeria.

Continued Unrest

Resentment against the military grew during the first

part of 1994. During the constitutional conference of May

2 ABIOLA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD BIOGRAPHY

23, the Campaign for Democracy called for a boycott of

elections, demanding that the military return power to

Abiola, the presumed winner of the prior year elections. On

June 11, 1994, after declaring himself to be president before

a group of 3,000, Abiola went into hiding. He called for an

uprising to force the military to recognize the 1993 vote.

The military, conducting a nationwide hunt, arrested him on

June 23. The following day, 1,000 demonstrators marched

on Lagos to demand Abiola’s release. By July, a war of

attrition by Nobel Prize winner, Wole Soyinka, was

launched against the government. In response, the military

charged Abiola with treason. Soyinka, one of the driving

forces behind Abiola, was forced to flee the country after

being charged with treason.

The oil workers went on a ten-day strike, crippling the

nation’s leading industry and bringing the country to an

economic halt. Riots flared in Lagos and by the strike’s third

week, 20 people had been killed. By mid-August the strike

had brought unrest to the northern and eastern part of the

country as support for Abiola continued to increase. Abacha

responded by firing any high ranking military he thought

were not loyal, then fired the heads of the state companies

and their boards. Abacha eventually crushed the strike after

nine weeks. He arrested any pro-democracy leaders that

could be found.

Heart Attack or Poison?

Abiola remained under arrest for four years, and was

not allowed visits by either his family or personal physician.

He was denied proper medical care, even after being exam￾ined by state-authorized doctors. Abiola’s daughter,

Hofsad, said the family was allowed no contact during her

father’s four years in prison.

On July 7, 1998, only days before his scheduled release

from prison, Abiola collapsed during a visit with a U.S.

delegation and died in Abuja, Nigeria, of an alleged heart

attack. His long-time friend and supporter, Wole Soyinka,

expressed doubts that the death was the result of natural

causes. ‘‘I’m convinced that some kind of slow poison was

administered to Abiola,’’ he told an interviewer after learn￾ing of his friend’s death. Soyinka claimed that other Nige￾rian political prisoners had been injected with poison and

indicated that he had received a note prior to Abiola’s death

stating that his friend would be killed within the next few

days.

An autopsy found that Abiola’s heart was seriously

diseased and confirmed it as the cause of his death. The U.S.

delegation visiting Abiola at the time of his attack saw no

reason to presume foul play, indicating that the presiding

doctors felt that the symptoms were consistent with a heart

attack.

Abiola’s death shocked and saddened a country that

had come close to experiencing true democracy through

valid elections for the first time in its history. The Roman

Catholic Archbishop of Lagos, Anthony Okogie, com￾mented on Abiola’s passing by saying, ‘‘His death is the end

of a chapter.’’ Instead of celebrating his release and the

possible resurgence of democracy, Nigeria stepped back to

re-gather itself, and start the process again.

Further Reading

Atlanta Journal and Constitution, July 16, 1998.

Newsday, June 9, 1995.

Time, August 9, 1993.

AP Online, July 7, 1998.

Encyclopedia Britannica Online, http://members.eb.com (Febru￾ary 16, 1999). M

Marc Andreessen

Marc Andreessen (born 1972) has been one of the

key players in making the Internet and World Wide

Web accessible to the masses, thanks to his develop￾ment of Netscape Navigator, a browser that inte￾grates text, graphics, and sound.

The astronomical growth of the World Wide Web

could not have occurred without a simple product

that helped users find their way through the vast, and

sometimes disorganized, material on the Web. The first

such product, called a browser, was invented by a team

including software developer and entrepreneur, Marc An￾dreessen. He developed the Mosaic program as a college

student. It later became the Netscape Navigator when he

co-founded his own company in 1994. This browser soft￾ware had a profound impact on society. According to some

estimates, Mosaic stimulated a 10,000 percent increase in

the number of Web users within two years from its debut,

and Netscape Navigator was even more popular.

Young Computer Whiz

Andreessen was born in Iowa in 1972. He lived in the

small town of New Lisbon, Wisconsin, with his parents,

Lowell and Patricia. Marc Andreessen’s father worked in the

agricultural field and his mother worked for Lands’ End, a

catalogue retailer. Andreessen was not a typical New Lisbon

boy. He spent his early years reading and learning about

computers. In sixth grade, he wrote his first computer pro￾gram—a virtual calculator for doing his math homework.

But the program was on the school’s PC, and when the

custodian turned off the building’s power, Andreessen’s

program was wiped out. The next year, his parents bought

him his first computer, a TRS-80 that cost only a few hun￾dred dollars. Marc taught himself BASIC programming from

library books in order to develop video games for the new

PC. Andreessen’s teachers and classmates from New Lisbon

remember him as a good student who excelled in comput￾ing, math, English, and history. Andreessen could even

challenge teachers, and was known to question the rele￾vance of their assignments. At the University of Illinois,

Andreessen planned to major in electrical engineering,

which he considered his most lucrative option, but then

changed to computer science.

Andreessen became interested in the Internet while

working at the University of Illinois National Center for

Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at Champaign￾Volume 19 ANDREESSEN 3

Urbana. At the NCSA, he worked with a programmer, Eric

Bina, to develop an interface that could navigate the World

Wide Web by integrating text, graphics, and sound. The

result was Mosaic, which the NCSA team completed in

1993 and posted for free over the Internet. Over two million

copies of the browser were downloaded the first year. Mo￾saic was responsible for a 10,000-fold increase in Web

users over a period of two years.

After graduating from the University of Illinois with a

bachelor of science degree in 1993, Andreessen took a job

with Enterprise Integration Technologies, a producer of In￾ternet security-enhancement products, in California. He

was contacted by Jim Clark, a former associate professor of

computer science at Stanford University. Clark had founded

Silicon Graphics Inc., a company which made computers

that specialized in graphics processing. He was interested in

starting a business with Andreessen. The two decided to

combine Andreessen’s technical knowledge with Clark’s

business expertise in order to launch their own company in

1994.

Founded Netscape

The company was originally named Mosaic Communi￾cations Corp. When the NCSA, which owned the copyright

to the Mosaic software, objected to the name, the partners

changed it to Netscape. Andreessen, as head of technology,

worked to make Mosaic faster and more interactive. He was

assisted by several team members from the original Mosaic

project at NCSA, whom he persuaded to join Netscape.

Soon, the company released their new browser, which the

development team wanted to call ‘‘Mozilla’’—short for Mo￾saic Killer. The marketing department, however, insisted on

Netscape Navigator.

The program was distributed free on the Internet, and

quickly became extremely popular. This established

Netscape as a ‘‘brand’’ name, and prompted computer users

to try other Netscape products. Soon, the company was

profitable. On August 9, 1995, Netscape first offered shares

in the company to the public. That day, shares were priced

at $28 and opened at an unprecedented $71 a share. In one

day, the 24-year-old Andreessen became worth more than

$50 million. To celebrate, he bought his first suit. By De￾cember of that year, Netscape’s stock reached an all-time

high. The value of Andreessen’s shares in the company

skyrocketed to $171 million.

Andreessen was known for putting in long hours at

Netscape, but his management style differed very much

from that of his main competitor, Microsoft. Andreessen

remained close to the programmers who worked for him,

and maintained a collegial, team-like atmosphere. He did

not insist that his employees work long hours—in fact, he

encouraged them to limit office hours to 50 per week. Char￾acteristic of this team-oriented approach was Andreessen’s

decision to offer Netscape’s browser code over the Internet

to anyone who wanted it. His reasoning was that the feed￾back he received from other software developers could lead

to new ideas for Netscape. In July 1997, Andreessen be￾came executive vice-president in charge of product devel￾opment at Netscape. With a staff of 1,000, Andreessen

hoped to stay ahead of the giant Microsoft. From the begin￾ning, Andreessen had used innovative strategies to get his

program out to the public. By allowing computer users to

download Mosaic and Netscape Navigator for free, he took

a chance. But the browsers became so popular that users

quickly developed confidence in the Netscape brand, and

purchased other Netscape goods and services.

Competition from Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation, which had been focused pri￾marily on its operating system and software for personal

computers (PCs) until late 1995, began to realize the value

of Internet browser software and announced that it intended

to work in that area. In August 1995, Microsoft released the

Internet Explorer 1.0 with its Windows 95 operating system.

Later versions of Internet Explorer were given away for free

and by December 1997, Netscape’s lead in the browser

market was down to 60%. In January 1998, Netscape de￾cided to give its browser away for free. Andreessen’s chal￾lenge was to get Netscape back to profitability. He no longer

wrote software programs himself, but as the head of product

development, envisioned new solutions for emerging tech￾nologies. With Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, Andreessen

shifted the company’s focus away from the browser market

and toward innovations for intranets (corporate networks)

and electronic commerce. He also began developing

Netscape’s web site into an Internet gateway similar to that

of America Online.

By late 1998, Netscape’s share of the browser market

had dipped to a little more than 50 percent. The United

4 ANDREESSEN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD BIOGRAPHY