Paul McEnroe, MSEE ’60, Owner/Operator, Rancho La Purisima

Paul McEnroe had a desire to make a difference in the world, and through his graduate studies in electrical engineering at Purdue, he was equipped with the skills necessary to have that impact.

“I came to realize that as an engineer I may have the opportunity of applying technology to make a contribution to society,” McEnroe says. Make a difference he did.

While working as a lab director at IBM, he and a team he formed created the globally ubiquitous barcode that appears on nearly every product. During 23 years at IBM, he developed many technologies, including a retail industry magnetic code and stripe and the barcode’s scanner, for which he holds the patent. He held several leadership positions at IBM, where he managed and directed engineers in impactful research.

McEnroe went on to become president at Trilogy, a wafer-scale-technology-based mainframe computer company. When he’s not working in the technology business, he ranches and is owner/operator of Rancho La Purisima in California.