While at ARPA, he proselytized for interactive distributed computing and fought for the nascent network. He lent key funding support to work on fundamental computing technologies, such as time-sharing, artificial intelligence, graphics, the mouse and teleconferencing. In 1984 Taylor moved to the Digital Equipment Corporation and started its famous Systems Research Center, which he managed until his retirement in 1996. Among SRC's long list of accomplishments are the first multiprocessor workstation, the first fault-tolerant switched LAN and the first electronic book. Had it not been for Taylor's genius at assembling teams of gifted researchers and motivating them to tackle ambitious technological feats, the evolution of e-commerce and the information economy would have followed a different, perhaps far slower road.
Few innovators can claim to have left so great a mark on the fortunes of the world.
Culler adamantly insisted, however, that lowercase characters, too, would in the long run prove essential. Luckily, he won the day. That anecdote is merely a footnote in Culler's distinguished career. Three recurring themes run through his work, both in academia and in the private sector. First, Culler believed that computers should be true problem-solving tools ones that helped users understand how to solve problems rather than just flexing mathematical muscle.