Dave Cutler
American software engineer

David Neil Cutler Sr. (born March 13, 1942) is an American software engineer. He developed several computer operating systems, namely Microsoft Windows NT, and Digital Equipment Corporation's RSX-11M, VAXELN, VMS, and MICA.
Personal history
Cutler was born in Lansing, Michigan and grew up in DeWitt, Michigan. After graduating from Olivet College, Michigan, in 1965, he went to work for DuPont.
Cutler holds at least 20 patents, and is affiliate faculty in the Computer Science Department at the University of Washington.
Cutler is an avid auto racing driver. He competed in the Atlantic Championship from 1996 to 2002, scoring a career best of 8th on the Milwaukee Mile in 2000.
Cutler was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering in 1994 for the design and engineering of commercially successful operating systems.
Cutler is a member of Adelphic Alpha Pi Fraternity at Olivet College, Michigan.
DuPont (1965 to 1971)
Cutler's first exposure to computers came when he was tasked to perform a computer simulations model for one of DuPont's customers using IBM's GPSS-3 language on an IBM model 7044.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Dave Cutler” is american software engineer. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Dave, Cutler and American, not as a finished interpretation.
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This entry incorporates text from “Dave Cutler” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.