Dave Shogren
eMail: Dave Shogren
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1976 to 1998
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Well..... A number of projects. SNAP/SHOT, IDNX, MQSeries, NetView for AIX, Network and Systems Management, Tivoli TME, etc.
One of the things that strikes me as I look back is the residency organization: My first resident (Domenico) was with me for 3-months. At the end of my WTSC time, the residencies were for much shorter duration (even down to a couple of weeks) and included a number of residents at a time.
All were terrific times and I was fortunate to work with so many professional / personable / true-experts. The best. Thank you, to you-all!
I won't mention names of specific residents here; there are, simply, too many. Some of the assignees that I certainly remember include: Paul Wood, Paul Peeters, Didier vander Straten, Robert van raamsdonk, Pete Russell, Barry Nusbaum, Rob McGregor, and many others. Of course: Carla Sadtler!
Perhaps "Google" will end up pointing some of the above to this page and, in turn, we will get in touch once again. Once in awhile I will update the above names and potential "Google-pointers" (as memory comes around or I glance through my note-cards; yes, I still have many of them! I also have my VM "Names" file, but I have not taken the time to go through that to refresh my memory)
I apologize if I spell people's names incorrectly!
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Here, I am doing fine. Amazing, that so many years already have passed since I left IBM in 1998. Time flies. I will be 71 in August. No problem, with that!. Nice, actually, - and it is terrific to remember good times.
I continue to manage some Websites (not much income/$$$, but interesting to do anyway), substitute teach twice a week (12 to 18 year olds, here in the public school system in Raleigh), golf (Sonja and I play twice a week at our local golf club) - and, otherwise fill the time with interesting matters!
My Website-support work involves normal HTML (no Dreamweaver, etc. for me!), PERL, some CSS, Wordpress installation/use-of, etc. Nothing dramatic, straight-forward, and enjoyable.
I do a lot with PaintShop Pro (photos, etc.) and a lot with videos using Visual Studio (previously used Pinnacle) for video - editing / creation.
I have no interest in the current "social media" sites and never use them.
I never read a FWD eMail (I was "hit" one time in the virus-period of 2001 or so). If anyone FWDs me an eMail, they need to know that I NEVER look at the eMail and hit the delete key.
Normal life. Very nice.
Sonja is, also, doing great; busy with taking care of me, working two or three days a week at a quilt/sewing-machine store, teaching quilt classes, creating her own quilt pieces - and, golfing with me. I got lucky. Very lucky, to have her as part of my life.
Golf is terrific, as usual, and she/I "treasure" the time that we share on the course.
We do NOT travel - except to Scotland for golf every-two-years. We love that trip.
That's about it! Boring, huh? Nice, though... for me.
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Phyllis Godwin
eMail: Phyllis Godwin
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1970-thru-1979 & 1985-thru-1992.
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I worked for Jim Sepich for about 10 years (starting when Mike Turin first established WTSC-Raleigh); November 1970 I left WTSC for several years to work in the Personnel Dept. and was lucky enough to come back to Rowan St. as a member of the ELSS group under Dave Sutherland and Tom Belcastro until the group disbanded.
I then was reassigned to Jim Sepich again; August 1985 through August 1992.
Jim and I retired July 1992 when we were in Bldg 657 on Green St.
I remained in contact with Jim and visited him a few days before he passed away in March 2011.
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I feel fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with so many talented and interesting people!
I am in regular contact with Nancy L. and occasionally with Tony C. and Tom B.
I also talked with Linda D. recently and communicate some with Ricardo G. (Brazil) via e-mail.
I guess we don’t call it PROFS anymore ☺.
Four years after my IBM retirement I went to work with another company for 13 years and retired a year ago.
In the last job, I was fortunate enough to work from my home on the PC.
My husband and I spend most of our time, now, at our place near Windsor, NC, where he hunts and fishes.
Life is good and I am glad I discovered your site.
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Harry Dutton
(Repeated here from the resident's part of this Web page, as I participated as both a resident and an assignee).
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1974 & 1980-thru-1983, 1997
Plus Residencies in-between those time periods.
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From the end of June 1974 for five months, I worked primarily as a programmer on a project to produce a very fast, efficient, "communications front end" for CICS. The project (initially called "NCS" and later "EXTM") was run by the US Domestic support centre but coming from Australia, I was managed through the ITSO. My objective in being there was to gain the skills necessary to build a similar "front-end" for a banking software application owned by a large customer.
I think I was the very first "resident". There were no residency rules and conditions, so Australia sent me under the "Business Trip" plan. This suited nobody and so I ended up negotiating my ability to rent an apartment etc. with Jim Sepich over a desk.
Later, I supervised one of the "beta-test" sites (in Perth, Western Australia) on behalf of the development group.
In early 1980 I joined the ITSO as an assignee responsible for X.25 (both architecture and products) and SNA Architecture. This lasted until the end of 1984. On return to Australia the ITSO kept me on the "retainership program" - this meant completing a number of overseas consulting projects under the auspices of the ITSO.
1986 brought another 3-month residency in Raleigh - the first of another five. These were all related to ATM and High-Speed Communications protocols but were not specifically product oriented.
In 1997 I re-joined the ITSO for one year as an "assignee" but did the work from Australia (with a few trips to various labs in between). This was related to fibre-optic communication and resulted in an externally-published Red Book that is still used as a text in several Universities around the world.
Throughout the 1990's I spent the intervening time (when not involved with the ITSO) attending International Standards meetings (on behalf of IBM) and making technical presentations to international conferences. For a time I was IBM Asia-Pacific "Product Manager for Communications Products".
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After the Ball:
In mid-1999 IBM decided to get out of the Communications business. I took an early-retirement severance package.
After leaving IBM I joined Optus (Australia's second-largest Telco) but found the work totally sales-oriented and not at all interesting. I took a severance package from them in April 2002.
For a few years I picked up my Flute again and began serious practice and even had regular lessons again for a couple of years. For a while I even attained a reasonably good standard. However, the world has changed and there are very few opportunities around to play at concerts and the amateur orchestras are besieged by young enthusiastic players who are a lot better than I could ever be.
I then picked-up the study of Family History. I found it fascinating BUT I am not at all interested in Births-Marriages-Deaths. You have to have them but they are only the skeleton. I started choosing individual relatives, studying them and writing short biographies. For most people this is impossible. Most people leave very little record. However, for some - especially the "black sheep" - quite a lot of information can be found. I ran out of relatives some time ago and right now I am writing a biography of a lady who is a relative of a friend of mine. I don't think these biographies are magnificent pieces of literature. I think of myself as a passable decent technical writer but I am NOT at all good at story-writing.
Of course, we have had at least one overseas trip per year. I resist these but my wife insists. I did all the travel I ever want to do in my IBM days.
We still live in the same house in Sydney. Our kids live in Brisbane, Melbourne and Manilla (the Philippines) and so we have to travel to see any of them - and the eight grandchildren.
I still look back on my years in IBM and especially on my ITSO years as amazing. I LOVED my job. I liked everyone I worked with. The management was excellent. Jack Miess, Jim Sepich and later Dick Hippert were superb managers and I liked each of them a lot on a personal level.
I found the technical aspects endlessly fascinating and challenging - the right word is "fun". The opportunity to write it all down and explain technology to others was just mind-blowing. Every month or two I needed to visit a group who worked in one of the buildings in RTP. This building was isolated from the others, on top of a hill, immediately surrounded by the ubiquitous car park but with the whole completely enclosed by the mixed Pine and Oak forest typical of the area. I would leave the building sometime around midday and as I walked down to the car the thought would strike me of just how lucky I was to have this job and to do it in this beautiful place. But the world moves on.
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