Seagate's Al Shugart, the founder of hard drive maker who died this week, was one of the Valley's few compulsively honest men. Most entrepreneurs resign quietly to spend time on other projects, or with their families; Shugart, when corporate hitman Larry Sonsini told him he was fired from Seagate, gave all the ugly details:

Shugart insisted he isn't sure why he was dumped and that he had no clue the end was near. No clue, until Larry Sonsini, of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, called Friday and said they should talk about some decisions his fellow board members had made. It's one of those calls that you know isn't good news.

Still, Shugart told Sonsini, an attorney for the Seagate board, that he was too busy to meet that day. Sonsini said he'd drive down to Shugart's Pebble Beach home over the weekend.

Shugart didn't sleep well Friday. Did the board majority want him to resign as CEO and just handle chairman duties? Did they have a major reorganization in mind?

His worst case scenario had to be losing his job, right?

''The worst case was that they put a contract out on me,'' he said.

So, 9 a.m. Saturday there's Sonsini at his door with the news that Shugart was out.

''I said, 'Well, we better have a board meeting then, because I'm not resigning.''

[San Jose Mercury News, July 1998]

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