He invented the computer mouse and developed early versions of email, word processing programs, and the Internet.
After World War II, he was an electrical engineer for NASA's predecessor, NACA, at Ames Laboratory. He left Ames to pursue his Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley.
He developed the computer mouse in the 1960s and patented it in 1970. The first mouse was a wooden shell covering two metal wheels. The patent lasted only 17 years. In 1987, the technology passed into the public domain, so Engelbart couldn't collect royalties from that point on.
In 1997, he won the most lucrative award for American inventors, the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize.
He grew up on a small farm near Portland, Ore. He studied electrical engineering at Oregon State University. He left school for two years during World War II to serve as a Navy electronics and radar technician in the Philippines.