Ray Noorda, best known as the tech guru behind Novell Inc. and Lindon-based venture investment company Canopy Ventures, died Monday after a decadelong battle with Alzheimer's disease. He was 82 years old.

Noorda, who died at 12:30 p.m. Monday of complications from Alzheimer's at his Orem home, is survived by his wife of 56 years, Lewena Tye; four children, John, Alan, Andy and Brent; and thirteen grandchildren.

"All of his family were in town when he passed. We were warned that he might be close to death as of last Friday," said David Vandagriff, Canopy's spokesman. Noorda was preceded in death by his parents, Bertus and Alida Noorda; daughter, Val Marie Kreidel; brother, Bert Noorda; and sister, Marie Hopkin.

Widely known as the Father of Network Computing, Noorda joined a then-bankrupt company called Novell Data Systems in Provo, reorganized it into Novell, and grew the company from just 17 employees in 1983 to more than 12,000 at its height. The company's corporate headquarters are now in Waltham, Mass., but it still maintains a work force of about 2,000 in Provo.

Noorda, who Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates once called the "grumpy grandfather" of technology, was bitter over Novell's failure to check rival Microsoft's power, according to an Associated Press story Monday. He tried branching out in the early 1990s by investing in the Unix operating system, the WordPerfect word processor and other products to compete with dominant Microsoft products.

But those efforts failed, and Novell went into a decline from which it has yet to fully recover.

Noorda, who resigned as CEO of Novell in 1995, then founded Canopy Ventures, which has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in more than 100 technology companies in Utah and California including homegrown successes such as MyFamily.com and Altiris Inc.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. in a statement Monday hailed Noorda as "one of the innovators of the Utah Miracle," referring to the growth of high-tech businesses in the state. He launched what would become Utah's technology sector, Huntsman said.

Noorda's legacy

Not only was Noorda known for making Novell's Netware -- which linked desktop computers to printers, file servers and directories -- the first networking software installed in hundreds of thousands of business and government offices worldwide, his legacy is in the mentoring he provided to thousands of current and former Novell employees.

"One of his lasting legacies is that it is impossible to walk into any tech company in Utah and not run into former Novell employees, many of whom worked and were hired by Ray Noorda," Vandagriff said.

Drew Major, co-founder of Novell, described Noorda as a "great mentor" to all of his employees and who gave them all opportunities to grow.

"With his integrity he built a trust and a bond in the early Novell years that empowered us together to go out and change the world. Not only was he respected and appreciated by those who partnered with him but also by those who competed against him," he said.

"He was known for letting anyone make a mistake once, as long as they got it right the next time," said Michael S. Dell, chairman of the board of Dell Inc.

Major also described Noorda as the "quintessential turn-around-a-failing-company man."

"Ray once told me that there were two more things he would like to do in life: First, to be pregnant and have a baby, and second, to get close to bankruptcy. I asked him why. He said that creating a new life had to be the greatest experience of life and was disappointed that he could never experience it," Major said.

Concerning bankruptcy, Major said Noorda "thrived being close to it because he felt it focused one's mind and made things easier to prioritize."

Other achievements

Noorda's other management innovations included the development of the channel structure for software sales. He built a tiered distribution strategy, in which manufacturers and resellers partnered to provide computer products and services to customers.

"Ray Noorda will be remembered as a technology industry giant not just in Utah but around the world," said Kevan Barney, Novell's spokesman in Utah. "Under his direction, Novell helped found the corporate networking market, and Noorda was instrumental in building Novell into the world networking leader. His legacy at Novell and in the Utah technology sector continues to influence innovation and remains a model of success to emulate."

Noorda also was known for coining the term, "coopetition", which represents the win-win standards technology rivals develop in partnership to grow the market for their products.

"Ray was one of the first to realize that networking computers inherently implied openness -- all computers connected and working together. Customers would expect competing companies to make their products work together on the network, so Ray coined the term 'coopetition' to express the new reality," Major said. "That early insight is now accepted as the norm, as witnessed by the Internet, but in the beginning it wasn't as clear and certainly was not followed by the major industry players."

Noorda's background

Born on June 19, 1924, the son of Dutch immigrants, Noorda's childhood in Ogden included jobs picking cherries and herding sheep to supplement his family's income during the Great Depression.

After graduating from the University of Utah with an engineering degree, Noorda worked as an electrical engineer with General Electric. After a 21-year career with GE, Noorda started a series of stints as a turnaround technology CEO, leading to his appointment as the chief of then-tiny Novell.

A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Noorda also devoted his retirement years and a majority of his earnings to philanthropic giving through the LDS Church and many charitable organizations.

Funeral services will be held at the Sunset Heights Stake Center, 1260 S. 400 West in Orem. More details of the services are pending.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A1.