Kenneth Huntsman
May 13, 2011
Kenneth Huntsman began his career in 1977 with Telenet Corporation, where he developed Telemail — later, Sprintmail — which was one of the first commercially successful electronic mail systems. He helped design and implement network control center software to monitor the company’s nationwide X.25 network and eventually became a senior scientist at the firm.
In 1983 Huntsman joined Control Video Corporation to create communications products for Atari VCS. As Control Video was disbanding, he and a group of co-workers founded Quantum Computer Services (QCS) in 1985.
QCS launched its first online service in November 1985. Four years later, QCS unveiled a service called America Online (AOL), the eventual name of the company.
Huntsman held a number of positions within AOL including systems programmer and director of systems architecture. His other responsibilities included overseeing the expansion and implementation of the online service as well as monitoring its performance.
Huntsman was elevated to the position of AOL Fellow and served as one of the chief technical consultants to the operations group of AOL Networks in Reston, VA, until his retirement in 2007.
The College of Engineering awarded him its Outstanding Engineering Alumni award in 2006, the highest honored bestowed by the College.
Huntsman earned his B.S. in computer science from Penn State in 1974 and his M.S. in computer science from the University of Tennessee in 1977.
Download a transcript of Mr. Huntsman’s commencement address »
