final credits - jeffrey m. harbers
While Bill Gates may never achieve his dream of having every personal computer on Earth running his Microsoft operating system, his product has become the leading platform in business and home computing environments.
One of his company's most successful products is the Microsoft Office suite of applications.
The man who led the engineering and development work on the software program, Jeffery Harbers, died June 24th, 2006 at the age of 54.
Harbers, along with pilot Jason Barton, 31, was killed in a single-engine plane crash near Big Timber, Montana.
Harbers was a fully qualified pilot. The aircraft had dual controls and a National Transportation Safety Board spokesman said they did not know who was piloting the plane when it crashed.
A local coroner said the plane and the victims were badly burned. The wreckage was spread over an area 300 to 400 yards long and 150 to 200 yards wide.
Jeffery Harbers was an engineering graduate of the University of Washington. After graduating he worked at a research center in Antarctica and on the Alaska oil pipeline.
Harbers joined Microsoft in 1981 and was employee number 67.
He was considered the leader who shaped the Office development team during the 1980s. He also served as director of Microsoft applications development and as general manager of the data access business unit.
The Office product line is used by 450 million people daily and has brought billions in profits for the company.
Harbers left Microsoft in the early 1990s, devoting his time to environmental causes, land conservation in particular.
He owned a ranch near Big Timber and also maintained a home at Whistler, British Columbia.
Harbers had just taken off for a flight lesson when his new Pilatus PC-12/47 turboprop plane crashed on private land one mile east of the Big Timber Airport.
Pilot Jason Barton was a United States Air Force reservist who had dreams of becoming an astronaut.
He served eight years with the U.S. Army, and then joined the Army reserves before transferring to the Air Force reserves.