Nine men gathered at The Black Steer on Sunday for a 40-year reunion that could only be held in Loveland.

The group worked on a team of about 50 at Hewlett-Packard in Loveland that developed and released the HP 9825 in 1976.

“During that time, this facility here in Loveland developed its own process technology for making a microprocessor, designed its own microprocessor, wrote the code for that microprocessor that went in the machine, designed the machine around it, and also invented the tape drive technology that went with it because there were no disks, there were no floppy disks, there was no nothing back then,” said Steve Leibson, organizer of the reunion.

The Loveland HP plant was the first location outside of California for the company started by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. It was meant to be a manufacturing plant, but moved into new and innovative technology.

“These machines were designed primarily as instrument controllers,” Leibson said. It could be counters, volt meters, signal generators and countless other instruments that HP was rooted in. It worked on cards that were inserted in the back to talk to different instruments, as many as 30 at a time.

“Here were all these instruments and if you wanted to build an automated system based on these instruments you needed to have a computer to talk to them,” he said.

Leibson said the 9825 was the third generation of the desktop machines that came out of Loveland. The first was a calculator, second was the 9800 series.

“The 9830 moved from being a calculator to a computer, you programmed it in BASIC,” he said, and called it the revolutionary machine that could fit on your desk.

“That sounds funny now, but back then it was the first personal computer, if you want to look at it that way,” Leibson said. The 9825 was the third generation that expanded more on the computer side and the first purpose-built desktop computer.

“The machine was so versatile that it quickly became the go-to tool for a lot of engineers and scientists just as a computing machine because it was just that good,” he said. But like most technology, the next great thing came along.

“This was all before the IBM PC. As soon as the IBM PC came out, it just killed this business,” he said of the machine released in 1981.

Leibson only spent five years at HP. He was hired out of college and worked on the input/output expander.

“It was probably the best five years of my career, they were the first five years,” he said. He remembered everyone wanted to work for HP so the company had its pick of the best and brightest. He was working with people who wanted to be in the company and the company encouraged training and learning.

“That was the right cauldron if you will, for bubbling up tremendous camaraderie,” Leibson said. Now working for Xilinx and living in San Jose, Calif., everything lined up again for another reunion.

Present Sunday were Don Morris, project manager; Leibson; John Nairn, who worked in software developer and the wrote I/O code; Thomas Ligon, project manager; Tim Mikkelson, who came on following the initial 9825 release for add-ons; Geoff Chance, project manager for development and interface; Chris Christopher, project manager for the 9825, who retired in 2008 from HP as a senior vice president; Mark Coleman, integrated circuit production engineer; and John Keith, who work on 9805 series.

“I guess they just love me so much I get invited to lunch,” Keith said as he wasn’t exactly on the 9825 team.

The group shared stories and talked about their time at HP. Some were there for a short time, like Leibson, while others were there for decades.

“For most people, at the end of their career, there is a project that stands out as exemplary,” said Morris. For this group, the 9825 was that project.

“It was a unique solution to a problem,” said Coleman. Morris remembers going out and talking to customers for three months to see how they were using the product and knew HP could do better. For this group, that time was more about more than a machine.

“We worked for HP when it was fun,” said Nairn. A few of the men listed the different departments they had been and the things they could try.

“There was a tremendous amount of original development going on. You couldn’t just go buy these components from different vendors,” Leibson said. Back then, he recalled, engineers could be put on almost any task from writing code to assembly.

“It was OK to fail,” said Nairn. They were encouraged to try new things and see what happened.

The men talked of the culture of the company.

“We worked for the company when it was not only fun, but great,” said Mikkelson. They talked about the HP Way. It was focused on innovation and respect of those that worked there and the community they were in.

“You take care of the people, the bottom line takes care of itself,” Nairn said was the overall motto. Nairn said the biggest change the company saw was when Hewlett and Packard retired.

“It’s not that HP was a great company and then became something else,” said Ligon, “it was the whole time.” He said things changed as the tech industry grew and matured, but change kept the company alive.

Christopher was with HP for 40 years from 1968 to 2008.

“The business changed all the time” he said, “The market changed, the customers changed, the technology changed.”

He said the key was to make smart changes and have people that could see the new trends and create new technology.

“The people are your best asset,” he said, explaining new things cannot be developed without people.

Christopher said he stayed for 40 years because of the fun he had. He retired only because he felt it was time and others could be promoted.

“I miss the interaction with the people,” he said.

The reunion was held to remember and share stories of their time together and to talk about an accomplishment they all share.

“We are remembering a time when we really broke some ground,” Leibson said, “We knew it was a groundbreaking machine and we knew it was going to make a big change in the lives of scientists and engineers who depended on that stuff and it did. We were proud of that.”

Michelle Vendegna: 970-699-5407, vendegnam@reporterherald.com