International Data Group (IDG), InfoWorld's parent company, announced today with great sadness that its founder and chairman, Patrick J. McGovern, died March 19, 2014, at Stanford Hospital in Palo Alto, California.
"IDG has lost a true visionary, and the IT community has lost one of its most exceptional citizens," said newly elected IDG board chairman Walter Boyd. "Pat's foremost desire was for IDG to make the world a better place through the medium of information technology. He created a unique workplace where we have the outstanding leadership team in place to ensure that the company he created will continue to grow and prosper."
A career dedicated to information on information technology Patrick Joseph McGovern, known as "Pat," was born Aug. 11, 1937, in Queens, New York, and spent the majority of his childhood in Philadelphia. His career in publishing began while he was a student at MIT, when he applied for a part-time editorial job at Computers and Automation -- the first U.S. computer magazine. After his graduation from MIT in 1959 with a degree in biophysics, he was promptly named associate editor and became associate publisher.