Embedded Files
Many people have held my hand and led me toddling to this point on my career. From the very beginning I have been directly and indirectly taught, coached, and counseled by many wise, knowledgeable, and talented role models and benefactors.
Others have done much of the heavy lifting, generated some of the best ideas, and made other significant contributions to most of the accomplishments that I usually like to tally as part of "my legacy."
I'd have nothing to be proud of today if it weren't for all of them. Here are just a few:
Formative influences
My father, a Ph.D. Chemist, introduced me to the scientific method, and convinced me I could learn anything. He helped me learn how to work independently. He also taught me that data isn't enough; you need to be able to present it.
My mother, a Ph.D. special education teacher, taught me much about childhood development and behavioral modification techniques (getting children to stop this, or do that). I have found that many of these theories work with adults. She also taught me a lot about interpersonal communication in general.
Karen Helstrom
A neighbor and creator of League Organizer. When I was in high school, Karen hired me to make demos for her software. I was introduced to the basement-software industry.
From 1987-1990 I spent summers in the chemistry laboratory of Dr. Robert Salomon at Temple University, working on the high-school science fair projects I planned to compete with in the next academic year. At the time Rick, was working on his Ph.D. in chemistry. Although he was not formally my mentor, indeed my mentor he was. Rick taught me much about scientific principles and laboratory practices. He treated me with dignity all of the time even though I was a dumb teenager most of the time, and his example helped me make the most of the special opportunity I had working in that lab. And although it does not impact my work life much, I must say that his understated spirituality had a lifelong influence on me as well, and I am a better person today for having known him 30 years ago.
Scanlon Associates alumni
James "Stan" Scanlon III (Ret.)
Proprietor of Scanlon Associates, and my employer for 14 years. Stan created an environment that allowed me to grow from documentarian to support agent to junior programmer to senior programmer to project manager to general manager.
He taught me much of what I know about:
Business
Accounting (primarily how G/L works )
Employee Management
Marketing
Networking (LANs and stuff)
Customer Relations
More
David Kilmer
A brilliant polymath, David wrote the program (LogPak) that I used as a model to write DP, learning Delphi in the process. Whenever I was stumped (in Delphi, or many other languages), he set me straight.
He was an amazing resource to discuss design, and together we built my dream-ORM. He wrote the automatic GUI builder in DP Architect, implemented custom rules-based validation and wrote most of Document Manager.
He's also as good a friend as a software developer.
Barry Stains
Barry learned Delphi and an alphabet soup of other languages at Scanlon's. He did great work rewriting our participant import routine, fixed many bugs, and implemented many planned feature enhancements.
Eric B.
I met Eric at the school bus stop in 1978, and we have been friends ever since. I brought him on board at Scanlon's about 25 years ago, when I was newly a manager. I knew his intelligence and versatility would serve us well, and it did. He was a guiding force in our support department. He is still my teammate so look for him again under "Current Coworkers".
Current partners and staff
Curtis B.
Partner and CEO of DP. He was the businessman to my artisan. From him I gained an appreciation for my fiduciary duty to the company above and beyond all things. The company must live so that our employees may live.
C.B. also got me much more involved in the legal aspects of the business, and encouraged me to stop engineering the software and start developing the product.
Kim W.
Partner and CFO of DP. Handles all things banking, loans, insurance, HR. Most of that is outside my wheelhouse.
Daniel W.
An incredibly productive software engineer, who can stand up almost anything lickety-split. He is vastly knowledgeable about all things in his domain, and outside of it. He has made invaluable contributions not just to our software offering, but our internal office systems and security compliance posture as well.
Eric B.
Last, but never least, Eric remains a workhorse. Runs support with his own subordinate now. Manages invoicing and subscription issues. Does demos. Handles training. He is always up to taking on more.
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