Jerrold Manock knew he wanted to be an engineer in jr. high school. He attended UCLA for three semesters in General Engineering and transferred to Stanford University where he graduated with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 1966 and an MS, Mechanical Engineering, Product Design, in 1968. Immediately after graduating he accepted a job with Hewlett-Packard, Microwave Division, where he contributed to the design of 13 electronic measuring instruments over the next four years. After a nine month sabbatical traveling around Europe and Scandinavia with his wife, Mary Ellen, he returned to the Bay Area to become Product Design Manager at Telesensory Systems, Inc., a maker of electronic aids for the visually handicapped. He left there in 1976 to found his own product design consulting firm, Manock Comprehensive Design.
Early in February, 1977, out of an 8' x 20' office in Palo Alto, he consulted with the newly formed Apple Computer, Inc. on the product / industrial design of the Apple II that was to make its debut at the West Coast Computer Faire in April of that year. Closely following the Apple II was the design of the Disk II. Because most of his billing was to Apple, Manock joined them "half time" (about 50 hours per week) as their Corporate Manager of Product Design. He was employee # 246. He very quickly realized that by accepting a "full time" position he could earn 100% more salary by working only 10% more hours. He then went on to co-design the Apple III with Hovey-Kelley Design. After the Apple III's ignominious introduction he was assigned to head the product / industrial design effort for the small Macintosh Research Project under Jef Raskin, as well as establish corporate design standards and initiate an Apple Design Guild which met regularly to guarantee product design quality and consistency throughout all Apple Divisions. The Macintosh, now a Division, eventually outgrew its Texaco Towers "skunkworks' facilities and moved into a real Apple building where it expanded to more than 100 people, 5 of which were in Manock's Product Design group, in preparation for product launch.
In 1984, after the Macintosh's introduction, Manock took a leave of absence to travel with his family in Scandinavia. Later that year he resigned from Apple in preparation for a move to Vermont in 1985 and a return to his private consulting practice. In Vermont he has had many small product design consulting projects, has taught experimental classes at the local high school, and holds an adjunct appointment as an instructor in the School of Business Administration, University of Vermont, where he has taught a course entitled Integrated Product Development for 14 years. He enjoys being active in his local community, sailing on Lake Champlain, traveling, macro photography in the Green Mountains, and has recently accepted a volunteer appointment as an Overseer for Sea Education Association in Woods Hole, MA.
