Gordon Matthews, who in the 1970s invented voice mail, now used by about 80 percent of large U.S. corporations, died Saturday in a Dallas hospital. He was 65 and lived in Austin, Texas.
Mr. Matthews formed the concept of voice mail during the 1970s; in 1979 he applied for a patent. The next year, the first equipment developed by Mr. Matthews was bought by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Corp.
The first voice mail machine brought into reality by his company, which later became VMX Inc., did not actually answer the telephone. Employees could leave a message for other employees only without ringing the telephone. That limited the early machine’s appeal.
In the early 1980s, Mr. Matthews and VMX patented voice mail. But in those years, voice mail computers were too large, too undependable and too costly to interest most corporations.
Voice mail machines used in the early 1980s were as large as a half-dozen refrigerators. By 1992, they took up less space than an ordinary filing cabinet.
Voice mail systems also became more dependable and less expensive. Twenty hours of storage capacity cost about $13,000 by 1992, compared with $180,000 in the early 1980s.
Voice mail’s role in American life grew larger. By 1989, Mr. Matthews said, his company was earning royalties in the “tens of millions of dollars.” And by 1992, over 40 million people were hearing the measured, clear, recorded voice of one woman, Jane Barbe, saying things like “Please press 1 for more options” to callers.
At his death, Mr. Matthews held more than 35 United States and foreign patents.
Born and reared in Tulsa, he graduated in 1959 from the University of Tulsa, where he studied engineering as well as physics.
He went on to be a Marine aviator and worked for IBM and Texas Instruments. He also spent 13 years with VMX Inc., based in Dallas, before selling it and retiring for a while. Last year, he became an executive of the VTEL Corp., based in Austin, whose business is videoconferencing equipment. The company changed its name to Forgent Networks in January.
He is survived by his wife, Monika, and a daughter.
