Who is Tom West from The Soul of a New Machine and what is their importance?

Tom West came to work at Data General in 1974. He was an amateur musician and liked to do building renovations. A graduate of Amherst College and a physics major, he had worked for the Smithsonian Institution for seven years, taught himself computer engineering, and then went to work at RCA. He traveled the world installing digital clocks on satellite tracking stations until he had a family and decided to stop traveling.