Guide to the Gary Morgenthaler collection

Finding aid prepared by Bo Doub, Kim Hayden, and Sara Chabino Lott

Processing of this collection was made possible through generous funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, administered through the Council on Library and Information Resources' Cataloging Hidden Special Collections and Archives grant.

Computer History Museum

1401 N. Shoreline Blvd.

Mountain View, CA, 94043

(650) 810-1010

research@computerhistory.org

May 2015

Title: Gary Morgenthaler collection

Identifier/Call Number: X3708.2007

Contributing Institution: Computer History Museum

Language of Material: English

Physical Description: 3.75 Linear feet, 3 record cartons

Date (bulk): Bulk, 1980-1990

Date (inclusive): 1970-2000

Abstract: The Gary Morgenthaler collection consists of financial, marketing, and administrative records that primarily document the operation of Relational Technology, Inc., a database management system company that Morgenthaler co-founded and was CEO and chairman of from 1980 to 1989. The collection also has a small amount of material on the company after its name was changed to Ingres Corporation in 1989, and on Tymshare and Informix, two companies Morgenthaler was associated with. There is also a small amount of books and manuals related to relational database technology.

creator: Morgenthaler, Gary, 1948-

Processing Information

Collection processed by Bo Doub and Kim Hayden, May 2015.

Access Restrictions

Morgenthaler identified the contents of box 2, folder 1 as sensitive material and requested those materials be closed to researchers until May 8, 2031. Otherwise, the collection is open for research.

Publication Rights

The Computer History Museum (CHM) can only claim physical ownership of the collection. Users are responsible for satisfying any claims of the copyright holder. Requests for copying and permission to publish, quote, or reproduce any portion of the Computer History Museum’s collection must be obtained jointly from both the copyright holder (if applicable) and the Computer History Museum.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of Item], [Date], Gary Morgenthaler collection, Lot X3708.2007, Box [#], Folder [#], Catalog [#], Computer History Museum.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Gary Morgenthaler, 2006.

Biographical/Historical Note

Gary Morgenthaler was born in Erie, Pennsylvania on July 10, 1948. He attended college at Harvard University and received a BA in International Studies in 1970. After finishing at Harvard, Morgenthaler moved to California in 1970 and worked at Stanford University teaching and doing data analysis for Stanford's Institute for Math Studies in the Social Sciences. In 1973, Morgenthaler left Stanford and began work primarily as an operating systems designer at Tymshare, Inc., a company that provided popular timesharing services and third-party hardware maintenance.

Gary Morgenthaler co-founded Relational Technology, Inc. (later renamed Ingres Corporation) with Michael Stonebraker, Eugene Wong, and Lawrence A. Rowe in November of 1980, launching one of the earliest commercially supported, open-source SQL relational database management systems. Relational Technology, Inc.'s commercial version of Ingres grew out of a research project at the University of California, Berkeley. Stonebraker and Wong initiated this project in the mid 1970s, which they called University INGRES (for INteractive Graphics REtrieval System) in its early stages. Morgenthaler joined them in 1980 and was integral in securing the funding to create commercial products from the University INGRES prototype and building the company which would sell those products, Relational Technology, Inc. (RTI). Throughout the early 1980s, RTI and Oracle competed as the leading hardware-independent relational database management systems (RDBMs).

Morgenthaler became a key figure in RTI's success and began as its chief executive officer in 1983. In 1989 RTI changed its name to Ingres Corporation, and in 1990 the company was purchased by ASK Corporation. Morgenthaler left Ingres when it was purchased and started work as a venture capitalist, setting up the West Coast office of Morgenthaler Ventures, an investment firm founded by his father, David Morgenthaler, in Cleveland, Ohio. Gary Morgenthaler still works as a Partner at Morgenthaler Ventures, specializing in information technology investments.

Scope and Content of the Collection

The Gary Morgenthaler collection consists mainly of administrative and financial records related to Relational Technology, Inc., a company Morgenthaler co-founded in 1980 and of which he was CEO and chairman until 1989, when the company changed its name to Ingres Corporation. The bulk of the Relational Technology, Inc. material in the collection spans 1980 through 1990, and includes business plans and overviews, stock and investment records, financial reports, board meeting minutes and reports, promotional material, and human resources records. A very small portion of the collection relates to the company after its 1989 name change. Of note are product development notes and several reports that analyze the company's competition.

Two folders in this collection document other companies Morgenthaler was associated with, Tymshare and Informix. The Tymshare records document the company from 1970 to 1977, while the Informix records focus on problems the company had financially and legally from 1997 to 2000, after Morgenthaler sold his company Illustra Information Technology to them in 1996.

This collection also includes books and manuals about relational technology, several of which are INGRES database user manuals. Also included are manuals for other relational databases and languages, plus books about technology and business in general.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into 3 series:

Series 1, Relational Technology, Inc. records, 1980-1996, bulk 1980-1990

Series 2, Tymshare and Informix records, 1970-2000

Series 3, Books and manuals, 1981-2000, bulk 1981-1988

Related Collections at CHM

Morgenthaler, David oral history, 2005-12-08, Lot X6305.2012, Catalog number 102746212

Morgenthaler, Gary oral history, 2005-12-08, Lot X3654.2007, Catalog number 102658005

Subjects and Indexing Terms

Informix Software

Ingres Corporation

Morgenthaler, Gary, 1948-

Relational databases

Relational Technology, Inc.

Tymshare, Inc.

Relational Technology, Inc. records, Series 1, Bulk, 1980-1990 1980-1996

Series Scope and Content

This series contains material that documents Relational Technology, Inc., from its founding in 1980, to its 1989 name change to Ingres Corporation, through 1996. It is primarily comprised of administrative and financial records, such as business plans and overviews, stock and investment records, board meeting minutes and reports, promotional material, and human resources records containing personnel documents and company policies and procedures. Of particular interest are reports that analyze Relational Technology's competition, particularly Oracle and Sybase. This series is arranged alphabetically by folder title.

102686015 Administrative and personnel records 1983-1990; 1996

102686008 Annual and quarterly reports 1987-1989

102686018 Articles and clippings 1980-1991

102686012 Board minutes and reports 1986-1988

102655282 Business plans and overviews 1982-1989

102734122 Chairman's report to the Relational Technology, Inc. board of directors 1988

102734094 Competitive analysis reports 1985-1988

102655283 Financial records 1983-1989

102686005 Ingres Corp. press 1990

102686019 Ingres Corp. stock records 1989-1990

102686004 Market research undated

102655322 Presentations 1981-1988

102655276 Product development, specifications, reports 1981-1988

102686003 Promotional materials 1983-1990

102734123 Stock and investments records 1989-1990

102686006 Sybase litigation 1986

102685999 User surveys 1980-1986

Tymshare and Informix records, Series 2, 1970-1977, 1997-2000

Series Scope and Content

This series contains records related to Tymshare, a company at which Morgenthaler worked in the 1970s, and Informix, a company that acquired Morgenthaler's Illustra Information Technologies in 1996. The Tymshare folder contains stock and retirement plan documents, an organizational chart, and a five-year plan summary. The Informix folder contains a 1997 letter written by Morgenthaler to the Informix board of directors expressing his concerns as a shareholder over the company's poor performance. It also includes a 2000 SEC settlement with Informix over accounting fraud. This series is arranged chronologically.

102655320 Tymshare records 1970-1977

102655323 Informix records 1997-2000

Books and manuals, Series 3, Bulk, 1981-1988 1981-2000

Series Scope and Content

This series contains instructive books and manuals about relational database management systems. Three of the works are guides to INGRES — all from the late 1980s when it was a product owned by Relational Technology, Inc. Most of the other material covers other database management systems and standard relational languages, including SQL. Two exceptions that are not exclusively about databases include a book of technology-related cartoons from The New Yorker and a business work titled What Not How: The Business Rules Approach to Application Development. Four of the books are authored by C.J. Date, a specialist in relational database systems who, after leaving his job at IBM in 1983, became a consultant for Relational Technology, Inc. This series is arranged chronologically.

102734113 Evaluating data base management systems 1981

102734117 A guide to DB2 1984

102734118 A guide to INGRES 1987

102734114 A guide to the SQL standard : a user's guide to the standard relational language SQL 1987

102734121 Getting started in INGRES 1987

102734120 INGRES training 1988

102734119 Object-relational DBMSs : the next great wave 1996

102734115 The New Yorker book of technology cartoons 2000

102734116 What not how : the business rules approach to application development 2000

102727387 The real story of Informix Software and Phil White: lessons in business and leadership for the executive team 2005