David Tarver

In a stellar move, technology entrepreneur and engineer, David Tarver, walked away from a successful career at the world’s foremost electronics research and development company, AT&T Bell Laboratories, to start his own business in his basement in 1983.

A kindred spirit of technology visionaries like Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, Tarver joined with two of his colleagues and launched Telecom Analysis Systems, Inc., a high-tech telecommunications instrumentation business, to prove they had innovative inventions to impact the technology industry and the world.

“I had a promise to 'Pops,' my father, when he was dying, that I would make my own way in the world and control my own destiny, something he didn’t get the chance to do,’ said the self-created businessman.

“I worked incredibly hard and took many career risks to fulfill my childhood dreams of owning my own successful business, and I fit the description of self-made man but in truth that term is a misnomer,” shared Tarver. “If we’re wise, we absorb every ounce of skill and insight from the best and brightest places we go to school and work. I was fortunate to have access to some of the highest caliber institutions, including attending General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), and graduating with a masters in electrical engineering from the University of Michigan. I was able to launch my dreams on a powerful wave of social and technological progress, but millions of African Americans with similar dreams who preceded me, including my father who shared my love of electronics, didn’t have the same opportunities.”

A decade after the Flint High School honor student sketched drawings of his imaginary company headquarters in his notebook, Tarver built his business and then negotiated the sale of it for $30 million. He continued working as Group President for the buyer, helping build an international telecommunications business with a market value in excess of $2 billion.

Paying all of his support and knowledge forward, Tarver currently serves as a lecturer in the University of Michigan College of Engineering – Center for Entrepreneurship, and during the 2015 academic year he launched a new course entitled “Urban Entrepreneurship.”

The Birmingham resident is also founder and board president of the Urban Entrepreneurship Initiative (UEI), to help make entrepreneurs fully aware of the education, technology tools, business and funding resources available to urban-focused business ventures, and to provide the tools to facilitate their success. “The urban communities the entrepreneurs and companies serve will be more livable, productive, equitable, and resilient. The ultimate aim is to help these professionals achieve the holy grail – to do well by doing good,” said Tarver.

In honor of his family, Tarver has also endowed the Fred and Louise Tarver Scholarship Fund at the University of Michigan, which provides a permanent four-year full tuition scholarship to an incoming engineering student.

Free time is important to the self-described “technology geek,” who always answers his own phone calls and has never had a personal assistant. “I enjoy spending time with my family or riding my electric bike around town and stopping for lunch or dinner – a favorite is Adachi for sushi and a spicy margarita.”

To get an up close look at his storied life, which includes civil rights battles, the technology revolution, and touching accounts of love and marriage, Tarver published the book “Proving Ground: A Memoir, which details his stalwart entrepreneurial journey from basement to world class success.

Tarver said he chose the title “Proving Ground” for his book because it’s a metaphor for all of the struggles in his life, and all of our lives. “Each failure induces improvements until a solid product emerges, and we can apply that concept to any challenge in life we decide to undertake.”

Story: Susan Peck

Photo: Laurie Tennent