Editing Gordon Letwin (section)

{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Short description|American software developer and early Microsoft employee}}
'''James Gordon Letwin''' (born July 2, 1952)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publicbackgroundchecks.com/SearchResponse.aspx?view=NM&fn=GORDON&mn=&ln=LETWIN&city=&state=&zip=&dob=19520702&age= |title=You searched: Gordon Letwin 19520702|publisher=Public Background Checks |date= |accessdate=April 10, 2011}}</ref> is an American [[software developer]] and one of the eleven early [[Microsoft]] employees who posed for an [[History of Microsoft#1975–1985: The founding of Microsoft|iconic staff portrait]] taken in Albuquerque in 1978.<ref name="25years">{{cite magazine | url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,996817,00.html | title=25 Years Ago At Microsoft | magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] | date=May 1, 2000 | access-date=September 16, 2006}}</ref>

Prior to joining Microsoft, he worked for [[Heathkit]], porting ''[[Colossal Cave Adventure]]'' to the computer<ref name="shoemaker198106">{{Cite magazine |last=Shoemaker |first=D C |date=June 1981 |title=Treasures on Disk |url=https://archive.org/stream/byte-magazine-1981-06/1981_06_BYTE_06-06_Operating_Systems#page/n15/mode/2up |department=Letters |magazine=[[Byte (magazine)|Byte]] |page=14}}</ref> and working on [[HDOS]] and [[Benton Harbor BASIC]].

Letwin's first project at Microsoft was writing a [[BASIC]] compiler. He is most noted for being the lead architect of the [[OS/2]] [[operating system]] on the Microsoft side, with [[Ed Iacobucci]] being the lead architect from [[IBM]]'s side. Letwin contributed much of the design and code for several core components, including the [[High Performance File System|HPFS]] [[file system]].<ref>{{cite book | title=Showstopper! The Breakneck Race to Create Windows NT and the Next Generation at Microsoft | first=G. Pascal | last=Zachary | year=1994 | publisher=Warner Books | isbn=0-02-935671-7 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/showstopperbreak00zach }}</ref>

Letwin left Microsoft in 1993 to "kick back" with his wife.<ref>{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |title=A look at Microsoft's first 11 employees  |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/ms7804122000.htm  |newspaper=Boston Herald |date=April 12, 2000 |accessdate=February 21, 2007 |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20010424144910/http://www.bostonherald.com/business/technology/ms7804122000.htm |archivedate = April 24, 2001}}</ref>  While at Microsoft he had become a millionaire, with a 2000 ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' article estimating his worth at around $20 million.<ref name="25years" />  Since leaving Microsoft, Letwin has donated substantial amounts of money to environmental causes via the [[Wilburforce Foundation]], a charitable foundation created by him and his wife, Rose.<ref name="25years" />