16910 GOROG, WILLIAM FRANCIS
2 September 1925 - 14 July 2002
Died in McLean, Virginia.
Cremated and inurned in Arlington National Cemetery Columbarium, Arlington, Virginia.
Aged 77 years.

WILLIAM FRANCIS GOROG was born in Warren, OH. Outside of his family, the event was little noted at the time. Nevertheless, throughout his life, his entrepreneurial activities were to result in significant changes in the affairs of the broader society. It would change both the manner in which financial affairs were conducted as well as how the legal process came to be implemented. In the former, he enhanced the usefulness of every credit card held by individuals, and in the latter, he made legal research more efficient by orders of magnitude.

Bill was commissioned into the Air Force and soon made the usual course at Tyndall AFB. He was assigned to the photo lab at Wright Air Development Center, where he became familiar with the problems the Air Force faced in manipulating and searching extremely large data bases. It also was during the Korean War that Bill journeyed to Korea as a member of an observer team from the photo lab. He resigned from the Air Force in 1953 and, in the interim, completed his master's degree at Ohio State.

As a civilian, Bill was initially employed by the Bulova Watch Company. At that time, Bulova was still manufacturing watches driven by metal spring energy. Bill was instrumental in leading the company into the electronic watch business, his first entrepreneurial activity, albeit conducted from the sanctuary of a large company. That was to change.

Bill left Bulova to form Data Corporation in Dayton. Under Bill's leadership, Data Corp was granted a contract by the Air Force to develop a full text large data base retrieval system. Using a consigned IBM random access memory system, Bill's team at Data Corp developed the operating system and software to solve the problem for the Air Force. Bill then turned his attention to civilian applications and markets. He ultimately sold the system to the legal community by partnering with the Ohio Bar Association. Clearly, Data Corp's new system was going to be in high demand to speed up the legal research process as well as any application requiring the search of large and complex data bases. In order to provide the capital for the necessary rapid expansion, Bill merged Data Corp into the Mead Corporation in 1969. He continued to run the Data Corp as systems were installed into legal firms nationwide. The system is now known as LexisNexis and is installed and utilized by thousands of law firms and research companies.

In 1975, Bill returned to direct government service when he accepted a presidential appointment in the Ford administration as Executive Director of the Council on International Economic Policy. With the end of the Ford administration, he returned to his entrepreneurial life in 1977. Those activities were to occupy him almost continuously until the end. Bill is remembered by his classmates as a cadet who accepted and simultaneously managed many different and difficult responsibilities. With his energy and intelligence, he was able to keep a variety of activities going while doing each very well. That mode of accomplishment was something Bill relished throughout his life.

He was the president of the Magazine Publishers of America during 1983-87. He founded the US Order in 1990, a pioneering company in the technology of paying bills by phone. Selling part of US Order to Visa International in 1994, he renamed the residual company Intelidata, and since then, Intelidata has gained several of the nation's largest banks as customers. He created Arbor International through which he financed and invested in various ventures.

He also joined Capital Investors, a group seeking to finance new high technology start-ups, and was a significant backer of and guide to Verifone, the credit card authentication company. He also established a trading company that exported computer products to the Far East. His business activities were manifold, although clustered in the high technology world.

Bill's busy and rewarding business life was enhanced and given meaning by his 53-year marriage to Gretchen Meister, which ended only with Bill's passing. Although Gretchen also was from Warren, they did not know each other and only met during his Yearling year. Gretchen remained a neighbor as a student at Marymount College, and they were married upon graduation in June 1949. In the first ten years of their union they were blessed with six children (three boys and three girls). Their six children, in turn, ultimately presented them with 21 grandchildren. Their children are Robin Gorog of Colorado; Jonathan Gorog of Virginia Beach; Christopher Gorog of Los Angeles; Lesley Gorog Harris; Jennifer Gorog Nichols, both of McLean, VA, and Peter Gorog of Oakton.

Bill Gorog was a role model for his classmates both as cadet and officer, for fellow entrepreneurs as an ethical and successful business man, and for his family as a loving, caring, and deeply religious person. The lives of all who knew him were blessed by their relationship with Bill Gorog.

Friend and classmate Amold Winter

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