William Redington Hewlett  was an American engineer and the co-founder, with David Packard, of the Hewlett-Packard Company (HP). William Redington Hewlett was born on May 20, 1913 in Ann Arbor Michigan. Hewlett’s interest in science and electronics started when he was a child, and in 1930 he began studying engineering at Stanford University in California. It was there that he met American engineer David Packard, and the two became lifelong friends. After graduation (1934) Hewlett earned (1936) a master’s degree in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and then returned to Stanford for further study. Hewlett received his Bachelor's degree from Stanford University in 1934, a Master of Science degree in electrical engineering from MIT in 1936, and the degree of Electrical Engineer from Stanford in 1939. He joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity during his time at Stanford. In 1999, the William R. Hewlett Teaching Center at Stanford was named in his honor. The building is located in the Science and Engineering Quad, adjacent to the David Packard Electrical Engineering Building. In 1983 he was honoured with the National Medal of Science, the highest scientific award in the United States.