I had been a student for almost four
years. I was well entrenched in the Math program. NKU had no formal computer
science program, but the Math Department had a curriculum that emphasized
computers. In the Fall of 1975 I decided to see how the other half (the
Business Data Processing students) were doing. So I signed up for
Intro to Data Processing.
The head of the Administrative Computer Department,
Garry Casson, was teaching the class. One evening, after class, I started
talking with him. He asked if I would like to see the computer room. This
was great. We mere students were allowed to touch only keypunch machines,
ASR-33s or hand our punch cards to an operator. We never actually saw a
computer. Therefore, I jumped on the chance.
As we toured the computer room (in which sat the
IBM-370/115 DOS/VS computer) Garry asked if I wanted a job. His night-time
operator was quitting and he needed a replacement. I thought about it for a
nano-moment, and said, "Yes!" The next day I stopped being a student, and
became a civil servant.
