Class Note 1965
Issue
May-June 2022
Our February Upper Valley breakfast, through Zoom, was unusual as we had classmates then in seven different states: Mike Bettman, Pete Frederick, Roger Hansen (New Hampshire), Jim Griffiths, Bob Murphy (Florida), Mike Gonnerman (California), Rich Beams (Massachusetts), Bill Webster (Connecticut), Bob McConnaughey (Vermont), and Dave Wagner (Rhode Island). The distance prize went to John McGeachie, who was wintering in his native country of Argentina. Here’s John’s story.
“I was born in Argentina to British parents and met my wife, Emma, when we shared a bench in secondary school. My father worked with a N.Y.C.-based company and pronounced ‘U.S. college!’ I chose Dartmouth because I loved mathematics. Our junior year I wrote the operating system for one of the two original Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) computers, which ran BASIC and other languages. It was the best software I ever wrote! I stayed in information technology, working in Arizona, New York, Hanover (1969-77), and Massachusetts. While in Hanover I attended Tuck and ended up running Kiewit Computation Center.
“I then worked for Arthur D. Little for 19 years. Major clients included the New York Stock Exchange, Aramco in Saudi Arabia, Banco Pastor in Spain, and YPF Petroleum in Argentina. I remember giving up my first-class seat while leaving Saudi Arabia as a prince would not permit takeoff unless he got a first-class seat! As a reward I got champagne, a cockpit visit, and a year of first-class travel on British Airways.
“With friends from Tuck we started several companies. In 2006 I joined the clinical trials software team at Phase Forward and then managed the development of Empirica Inspections, which was put together and delivered to the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 13 months. In 2015 I retired. Along the way I developed a software-based replica of the original DTSS, which now runs on Amazon Web Services. It replicates precisely the original computer and runs the operating system I wrote in 1963-64, as well as the original version of BASIC. It’s accessible via www.dtss.org/dtss.” (John did not mention that he holds three patents in information technology.)
We have lost classmates Siego Hayashi, Mark Eldridge, Jake Miller, and Frank Hershenson. See www.biggreen65.com for further details.
—Bob Murphy, 7 Willow Spring Lane, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-5589; murph65nh@comcast.net
Back to 1965 Class Year
More of 1965 Class Notes
“I was born in Argentina to British parents and met my wife, Emma, when we shared a bench in secondary school. My father worked with a N.Y.C.-based company and pronounced ‘U.S. college!’ I chose Dartmouth because I loved mathematics. Our junior year I wrote the operating system for one of the two original Dartmouth Time-Sharing System (DTSS) computers, which ran BASIC and other languages. It was the best software I ever wrote! I stayed in information technology, working in Arizona, New York, Hanover (1969-77), and Massachusetts. While in Hanover I attended Tuck and ended up running Kiewit Computation Center.
“I then worked for Arthur D. Little for 19 years. Major clients included the New York Stock Exchange, Aramco in Saudi Arabia, Banco Pastor in Spain, and YPF Petroleum in Argentina. I remember giving up my first-class seat while leaving Saudi Arabia as a prince would not permit takeoff unless he got a first-class seat! As a reward I got champagne, a cockpit visit, and a year of first-class travel on British Airways.
“With friends from Tuck we started several companies. In 2006 I joined the clinical trials software team at Phase Forward and then managed the development of Empirica Inspections, which was put together and delivered to the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 13 months. In 2015 I retired. Along the way I developed a software-based replica of the original DTSS, which now runs on Amazon Web Services. It replicates precisely the original computer and runs the operating system I wrote in 1963-64, as well as the original version of BASIC. It’s accessible via www.dtss.org/dtss.” (John did not mention that he holds three patents in information technology.)
We have lost classmates Siego Hayashi, Mark Eldridge, Jake Miller, and Frank Hershenson. See www.biggreen65.com for further details.
—Bob Murphy, 7 Willow Spring Lane, Hanover, NH 03755; (603) 643-5589; murph65nh@comcast.net