RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK - Mark Dibner just wanted to build a computer with his son. Three years later, their project is changing lives across the Triangle. Next up: The world.

What started as a father-and-son effort in the Durham biotech executive's basement has mushroomed into a full-time operation that has rehabilitated hundreds of supposedly obsolete personal computers for honor roll students in Durham who can't afford them. Dibner's nonprofit Kramden Institute is planning a statewide expansion and could be distributing refurbished units overseas in a few years.

Mark Dibner "is a strong believer you can close the digital divide," says Robert "Boomer" Brown, who became the institute's executive director this year. "I've heard him say that when we give a machine out, there will be a family getting on the Web for the first time tonight."

The Kramden Institute -- the name is a combination of Mark and son Ned's names spelled backward -- has fixed about 600 computers at "Geek-A-Thons" that attract up to 75 volunteers. This year, the institute expects to distribute 800 to 1,000 computers.

Dibner, president of BioAbility, a biotech company in RTP, has a doctorate in neurobiology and pharmacology plus an MBA. The New York native also has gobs of curiosity and is a longtime eBay shopper. Both traits factor heavily into the making of the Kramden Institute.

Building an enterprise

When he found a cheap motherboard -- a computer's main circuit board -- online one night, he snapped it up and told his son Ned they were going to build a computer. And they did, after downloading the instructions.

That was when Ned mentioned that some of his classmates were having points docked from their papers because assignments needed to be typed and they had no computers at home.

"I didn't think it was fair," says Ned, a 10th-grader at Jordan High School. "I suggested we build computers for kids in my class, and he took it and ran with it."

Dibner, 54, began talking to friends and business associates. He quickly found there was no shortage of old but serviceable computers available.

"Everyone had one in their basement or attic," says Dibner, who at 6 feet 2 inches and 230 pounds has a bearlike countenance but speaks in a soft voice. "They were thrilled to get their office back or their basement back. The idea seemed to resonate with everyone I talked to."

Soon the Dibner home was overflowing with monitors, processors and keyboards.

"We had computers throughout our dining room, throughout our basement, and our kitchen was pretty hard to get through," Ned says.

The first year, they rebuilt about 30 computers. Each took about eight hours to fix. Initially, Dibner and Ned did all the work. But as the project took off, Dibner leased warehouse space in Research Triangle Park and built a volunteer network whose members now do most of the rebuilding.

Dibner averages 50 hours a week running BioAbility, which has 10 employees, and puts in eight to 10 hours a week at the Institute, with help from Ned and his wife, Elaine, an executive at Northwestern Mutual Life in Raleigh.

"Some people want to be famous, some people want to make a lot of money, and some people want to do interesting work and make a difference in people's lives, and Mark falls into that group," says friend Joe Smith, president and chief executive of Syntherica, a Durham biotechnology company. Smith has known Dibner since 1998.

Lowe's Grove Middle School in Durham has received about 60 rebuilt computers, and principal Marsha Person says it is hard to overstate the boost the computers give students.

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