"The Black video game engineer who pioneered the way we play."
Jerry Lawson helped invented home video gaming in the 1970s by creating the Fairchild Channel F, the first home video game system with interchangeable games.
A Timeline of Jerry Lawson's life
- Gerald Anderson Lawson was born in New York City on December 1, 1940
- He was inspired by George Washington Carver, causing him to tinker with televisions growing up to make money.
- He enrolled in Queens College, a part of the City University of New York.
- In the 1970s, his interest in computing encouraged him into Silicon Valley's Homebrew Computer Club, where he was the only black member at the time and eventually crossed paths with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. He referred to Jobs as a business-minded "sparkplug" and was unimpressed when he interviewed Wozniak for a job.
- In the mid-1970s, Lawson helped create the Fairchild Channel F, which was produced in 1976 by Fairchild Semiconductor, where he worked as director of engineering and marketing.
- His work allowed people to play a variety of games in their homes and paved the way for systems, such as the Atatri 2600, Nintendo, Xbox and Playstation.
- On April 9, 2011, Jerry Lawson died in Mountain View, California due to complications relating to his diabetes. He was survived by his wife, Catherine, and his two children.