Ward Munson had started the sporting goods business after World War II. He concentrated on fishing gear and might have had the largest selection in the United States. His salesman traveled the country. He soon became the warehouser for Remington. This led him to develop special software for licensing and distribution of firearms. He also was the middleman for ticketing and distribution of toys and other fun stuff to many south land chain stores. Ward said that the three branches of his business had contrary cycles; in other words, either guns or fun were in vogue, and he would make money. To Ward, fishing was always in season.
About 1978, Curtis Stevens started working at Munson Sporting Goods in Costa Mesa. Curtis was surprisingly persuasive and very prolific in writing programs. Munson needed some formalization of its software; they had just switched from a Basic-4 system to an HP3000 system. With a bit of over-selling, Curtis persuaded Ken Roberts to hire me as the Senior Programmer in charge of standards and architecture. Ken Roberts was the VP of Finance.
During the next two years, I led an effort to convert from scrolling screens to formatted screens, which were quite similar to current screens. Gavin Scott and David Doyle improved and expanded the power of the screen functions. The purchase order system was the first renovated module. Then inventory. Then came accounting. Often after spending the night working, I would meet Ward Munson about 6am as he came to work. He was the president of MSG. Sometimes, he would ask me questions for twenty minutes. The death of his son Kelly deeply saddened Ward.
During 1980 and 1981, we sold six systems for which I was the technical expert and the inventory expert. The artwork for those sales was also mine. Other employees sold more systems, and Munson Management Systems split from Munson Sporting Goods. During the summer, office politics got ugly and Ken Roberts was voted out of MMS; by October, MMS was bankrupt and I switched to NEC and finished implementing that system.
Ken Roberts founded American Data Industries in the vacuum; for several years, we exchanged services and customers after I started PCC.
Like Ward would have said, "David Doyle was the big fish that got away."
About 1978, Curtis Stevens started working at Munson Sporting Goods in Costa Mesa. Curtis was surprisingly persuasive and very prolific in writing programs. Munson needed some formalization of its software; they had just switched from a Basic-4 system to an HP3000 system. With a bit of over-selling, Curtis persuaded Ken Roberts to hire me as the Senior Programmer in charge of standards and architecture. Ken Roberts was the VP of Finance.
During the next two years, I led an effort to convert from scrolling screens to formatted screens, which were quite similar to current screens. Gavin Scott and David Doyle improved and expanded the power of the screen functions. The purchase order system was the first renovated module. Then inventory. Then came accounting. Often after spending the night working, I would meet Ward Munson about 6am as he came to work. He was the president of MSG. Sometimes, he would ask me questions for twenty minutes. The death of his son Kelly deeply saddened Ward.
During 1980 and 1981, we sold six systems for which I was the technical expert and the inventory expert. The artwork for those sales was also mine. Other employees sold more systems, and Munson Management Systems split from Munson Sporting Goods. During the summer, office politics got ugly and Ken Roberts was voted out of MMS; by October, MMS was bankrupt and I switched to NEC and finished implementing that system.
Ken Roberts founded American Data Industries in the vacuum; for several years, we exchanged services and customers after I started PCC.
Like Ward would have said, "David Doyle was the big fish that got away."