Brief Biography
of Stephen M. Cabrinety
Stephen M. Cabrinety was born on August 4, 1966 in Sayre, Pennsylvania,
the son of Lawrence P. and Patricia A. (Butler) Cabrinety. He
lived much of his life there as well as a short time in Edina,
Minnesota, and Hudson, New Hampshire, before moving with his
family to Fitchburg, Massachusetts in 1985. He attended the University
of Minnesota and Stanford University, from which he graduated.
Cabrinety developed an interest in computers and computer history
early on and began collecting computer hardware and software
while still in grade school. This interest led him to create
a computer classification system for the Minnesota Zoo called
OSIRIS, and to establish the Computer Discovery Center and the
Computer History Institute for the Preservation of Software (CHIPS).
The Computer Discovery Center, of Fitchburg, was an educational
center opened in 1992 that offered the use of personal computers
to visitors. The Center also housed a software archive dating
to the 1970s, the germ of which became the Stephen M. Cabrinety
Collection in the History of Microcomputing.
Stephen Cabrinety founded Superior Software, Inc., of Minneapolis,
at age 16. For Superior, Cabrinety wrote three pieces of educational
software for Apple Computer: The Breckenridge Caper of 1798,
Legendary Conflict, and Quest for the Scarlet Letter (all 1982),
each of which is represented in this collection.
Cabrinety died on October 4, 1995 in Boston. He was 29.
