Fran, Congratulations on an almost unheard of accomplishment in this day and age. My own career dates back that far, however, there have been several changes of jobs, some voluntary, others not (I have been drafted, laid off, and outsourced), during that period. The longest I have managed to stay with one employer has been 14.5 years. That tenure was ended by being outsourced. You have been able to achieve something that most of us have not even been able to imagine.
Regards, Richard Schuh > -----Original Message----- > From: The IBM z/VM Operating System > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Fran Hensler > Sent: Monday, May 05, 2008 10:22 PM > To: IBMVM@LISTSERV.UARK.EDU > Subject: My 45th Anniversary at SRU > > This is cross-posted to VSE-L and IBMVM-L. > > Today is my 45th anniversary in data processing at Slippery > Rock University of PA. On May 6, 1963 I founded the Data > Processing Center at the then Slippery Rock State College. > The center consisted of one half-time key punch operator and > me. My mission was to automate student registration by the > fall semester and have class lists in the hands of faculty > before the first class meeting. We had an arena style > registration for 1996 students in three days. The class > lists were produced after working 27 straight hours. > > We had Series 50 (half speed) IBM punched card tabulating equipment: > One 024 keypunch, a 548 interpreter, 082 sorter, 085 collator, > 514 reproducing punch and a 402 accounting machine that could > print 50 lines per minute. The 402 could only add and > subtract. Later we acquired a > 604 calculator that could divide and therefore calculate QPA. > All of these machines were programmed by wiring plugboards. > > In 1968 we installed an IBM System/360 Model 30 computer with > 32K core memory and 14.5M of 2311 disk storage running > DOS/360 Release 17. Now the 7.5 hour job of sorting course > cards took 10 minutes! > > Six model 2260 terminals were purchased in 1972 and I > designed an on-line student registration system (using > FASTER, a forerunner of CICS) that is still in use today, > under the covers, in the RockTalk system whereby students can > register via telephone or on the web. For the first on-line > registration that fall, all six terminals were setup in the > Student Union. It took 3 days to register 5897 students. > > Students had to punch their programming assignments into cards until > 1975 when I implemented IJS (Interactive Job Submission) to > allow input and printing via DECwriters at a speed of 110 > baud and eventually 300 baud. > > In 1985 SRU acquired an IBM 4361 computer with 12M main > memory. I tailored the VM/SP Operating System Release 3 for > student use of WATFIV, WATBOL, Pascal, C, Lisp, SPSS, ADA, > Basic, Spitbol and Assist and two years later, Modula-2. > > The 1990 connection to BITNET brought email and file transfer > capabilities with other universities. 1992 saw the > acquisition of an IBM 9221-170 computer with 96M of main > memory and SRU was finally able to connect to the Internet. > Since 2003 VSE and VM are running on an 18-MIPS FLEX-ES system. > > I have enjoyed being a programmer, systems analyst and most > of all a systems programmer. I have been honored by > receiving the SRU President's Award for Outstanding Service > in 1994 and being inducted into the Order of Knights of VM as > "Sir Fran of the Rock" in 2007. > > I would like to hear from anyone who has had a career with a > single employer running more than 45 years. > > /Fran Hensler at Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania USA > [EMAIL PROTECTED] +1.724.738.2153 > "Yes, Virginia, there is a Slippery Rock" >
