Anita Borg didn't build any particularly famous computer gear or write any blockbuster software. Yet the engineer, who died Sunday of brain cancer at the age of 54, was a genuine Silicon Valley pioneer whose leadership and forward thinking touched thousands of lives.

Borg combined her passions for feminism and technology with uncommon organizational skill to advocate for more women in tech -- as well as products that are relevant to women's lives.

Borg ``changed the world,'' said Carly Fiorina, Hewlett-Packard chairman and chief executive. ``The industry owes Anita, the woman, the pioneer, the scientist, the entrepreneur, a debt of gratitude. She was a true leader and like all true leaders, she enabled others. She inspired others to dare and she supported so many to realize their dreams,'' said Fiorina, widely considered to be the most powerful woman in business.

Borg, whom admirers described as a brilliant engineer, worked for Digital Equipment Corp.'s groundbreaking Palo Alto networking lab for more than a decade before leaving in 1997 to found the Institute for Women and Technology (IWT) at another celebrated research facility, the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).

Work continues
The institute Borg founded continues to work to bring more women into the tech industry as well as ensure that technology is designed with the input of women. Those who knew Borg say her views of technology -- and the contributions women could make there -- were light years ahead of where the industry is today.

``We're miles off,'' said A. Richard Newton, dean of the College of Engineering at University of California-Berkeley. Newton attributes changes to the college's admission process two years ago -- which has increased the number of women admitted -- to Borg's influence. ``We've got a huge way to go.''

Aside from advocating for a woman's place at the research bench -- and the executive suite -- Borg was also concerned with changing the way products were conceived and developed. Making products that were relevant to real needs instead of gee-whiz desires was a passion. Toward that end, the institute works with universities to help their engineering students brainstorm and develop models of technology that matter to real people.

``Anita opened my eyes to other ways of creating technology to make it more useful and socially relevant,'' said Greg Papadopoulos, Sun Microsystems' executive vice president and chief technology officer.

``Mostly the technology we have been creating is created by nerdy, white guys so you get nerdy, sometimes not-so-useful technology. Engineering is a creative art. You get out of it the life experience you put in it. If we want to create socially relevant technology, there better be a much broader participation in the development of it.''

Pioneering group
Borg's moment of revelation came to her in 1987, in the women's restroom at a programming conference. While there were hundreds of men at the event, the handful of women present huddled in the restroom and bemoaned their scarcity. After the conference, Borg started Systers, an e-mail group to support and mentor women in computing -- at a time when such e-mail groups were rare. Today, Systers boasts more than 2,500 members in 38 countries.

In 1994, Borg co-founded the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing Conference, which brings together women to discuss technical developments as well as mentor, recruit and retain women in the industry.

`Important mentor'
Borg's contributions were also made one-on-one.
``By far, she was the most important mentor I had in my life,'' said Wendy Rannenberg, who met Borg in the 1990s while at Digital. Rannenberg now works as a senior member of the technical staff at the Nashua Languages and Tools Lab in New Hampshire.

``She was never afraid to go to management and say `This is broken and you need to do something to help these women.' She gave me a lot of ideas to do that. And I've continued to do that ever since.''

Borg was just as passionate about life outside the lab. A pilot who often flew to Mendocino for day trips, Borg was an outdoors enthusiast who enjoyed biking, kayaking and backpacking.

Her trademark style was T-shirts emblazoned with messages such as ``Well-behaved women rarely make history.''
As for Borg, who once led a Marxist-feminist book group, ``well-behaved isn't one of those words that come to mind when I think of her,'' said longtime friend Telle Whitney, who's now president and chief executive of IWT. ``She loved to make a point. She liked to be noticed.''

She also loved to dance and to meditate. She was diagnosed with brain cancer in spring of 2000. In typical Borg fashion, said Whitney, ``she faced it gracefully. She lived each day for itself.''