Dale Heatherington

[3][4][5] Although a southern newspaper described him as "just a multimillionaire who likes tracking his cat with a homemade radio transmitter", [6] Heatherington's career went beyond the modem company, including work in the area of game robots.

"[6] Hayes and Heatherington, having met as fellow employees of National Data Corporation, formed a company to facilitate automating the process of dialing a modem.

[9] This automated hardware and software combination contrasted with the work they had performed at National Data, where they handled electronic money transfers and credit card authorizations (manually dialing, using acoustic coupler modems).

[10] Heatherington retired from Hayes Microcomputer in 1985;[4] his share of the firm resulted in receiving $20 million.

Heatherington majored in electrical engineering at Southern Polytechnic State University.