Hess

Personal data: Birth date:  22 January 1953(age 72) Birthplace:  Warren, Ohio, USA Marital status:   Children:   Education:  Stanford, Harvard Occupations:  Science Buddies Founder and President Job:  Tourist Status:  Ret.

Spaceflights:

Additional information:

• Kenneth Lafferty Hess (born January 22, 1953) is an engineer, author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. Hess is the founder and president of Science Buddies, a non-profit organization dedicated to furthering science literacy through the creation of free resources and services for K-12 students, teachers, and families. He holds one of the first software patents ever granted[1] and has designed and/or developed dozens of commercial software, content, and Internet products, including Family Tree Maker, one of the all-time best-selling home software programs. Among his awards are a PC Magazine Editor's Choice, PC Magazine Top 100 Web Site, a Codie award and a Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).
• He founded Banner Blue Software in 1984. Tapping into a growing societal interest in genealogy and personal ancestry, Banner Blue developed Family Tree Maker, genealogy software that enabled users to locate and organize ancestral information. During the first half of 1996, Family Tree Maker was one of three top-selling personal productivity product lines, according to PC Data. Banner Blue also developed Org Plus, a tool for creating corporate organization charts. A version of Org Plus, labeled Microsoft Organization Chart, was bundled into copies of Microsoft Office for many years. Hess wrote the initial versions of both Family Tree Maker and Org Plus and designed the initial version of Family Tree Maker Online.
• In 2024, Hess was selected in a suborbital spacefight to fly as a space tourist on Blue Origin's New Shepard NS-25 in April 2024. The other passengers are Mason Angel, Sylvain Chiron, Carol Schaller, Gopichand Thotakura and Ed Dwight, a former US Air Force Captain.