William Francis Gorog

West Point, 1949

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Terry Powers on December 28, 2022:

William Gorog, 76, Businessman With a Bent for High Technology William F. Gorog, a technology entrepreneur who was one of the first to develop the public's ability to pay over the phone with credit cards and later via the Internet, died Sunday at a hospital in Falls Church, Va. He was 76 and lived in nearby McLean. The cause was lung cancer, family members said. Over a 40-year career in business, Mr. Gorog founded and developed numerous technologies that were sold or spun off as separate ventures. In the 1960's, he was a founder and chief executive of the Data Corporation, which originated the computerized information retrieval system that is known today as LexisNexis and used by thousands of businesses, law firms and federal agencies. The company later merged with the Mead Corporation. At his death, Mr. Gorog was the chairman of the InteliData Corporation, which pioneered the development of electronic banking and bill paying. Early telephone bill-paying systems involved delays of sometimes days while banks were notified, checks were cut and bills were paid. InteliData was one of the companies that developed computer systems that could almost instantly make deductions from a customer's account to issue payments. Mr. Gorog founded the company in 1990 as US Order and sold some of the company's technologies to Visa International in 1994. Mr. Gorog also took a break from business to work as an economic adviser in the Ford administration. He served as the deputy director of the President's Economic Policy Board and later as executive director of the Council on International Economic Policy. After leaving government, Mr. Gorog established a trading company that exported computer products to the Far East. From 1983 to 1987, he served as the president of the Magazine Publishers of America, a trade group. In 1987, he became chairman of Arbor International, an investment management company involved in financing energy, technology and real estate ventures. The banking and bill-paying business grew out of his work at Arbor. Mr. Gorog was born in Warren, Ohio, on Sept. 2, 1925. He learned about business from his father, Frank, who turned the family grocery store into a chain of successful supermarkets. He was a graduate of West Point and Ohio State University and served in both World War II and the Korean War. Mr. Gorog's community activities include serving as chairman of the board of visitors of the Georgetown University School of Business. He was also a member of the Knights of Malta, a lay order of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Gorog is survived by his wife of 53 years, Gretchen, and six children, Robin, of Aspen, Colo.; Jonathan, of Virginia Beach; Christopher, of Toluca Lake, Calif.; Lesley Gorog Harris, of McLean; Jennifer Gorog Nichols, of McLean; and Peter, of Oakton, Va.; and 21 grandchildren. July 17, 2002 NYT

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