Alan Field Shugart (September 27, 1930 – December 12, 2006) was an American engineer, entrepreneur and business executive whose career defined the modern computer disk drive industry.
[2] Born in Los Angeles, he graduated from the University of Redlands, receiving a degree in engineering physics.
Shugart died at age 76 on December 12, 2006, in Monterey, California, of complications from heart surgery he had undergone six weeks earlier.
He backed a failed ballot initiative in 2000 to give California voters the option of choosing "none of the above" in elections.
In 2005, he was made a Fellow of the Computer History Museum "for his lifelong contributions to the creation of the modern disk drive industry."