Jack Goldman wanted to call Xerox PARC the Xerox Advanced Scientific & Systems Laboratory. We're glad he didn't. (Photo: Xerox)

Jacob “Jack” Goldman — the man who founded the lab that pretty much invented the personal computer as we know it — has died at age 90.

Goldman was the Xerox Chief Scientist who in 1969 proposed that the company create a pure research laboratory that would put Xerox in the same league as IBM and AT&T, whose Yorktown Heights and Bell Labs facilities are now legendary.

The result was Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) — the birthplace of the graphical user i...