Jerry Blackwill

I wrote my first computer program in 1960 on an IBM 650. A computer word was "bi-quinary" because it consisted of 2 bits followed by five more. This is similar to an abacus.

After graduation from UCLA in 1961, I learned more programming at System Development Corporation. We were developing the first online computer system - the USAF SAGE system. I wrote programs to communicate between SAGE computer sites spread around the border of the United States.

I left there to complete a MBA at the University of Chicago. There I worked as a research assistant installing a group of Fortran statistical programs developed at UCLA's BioMedical department.

After graduation from the University of Chicago, I worked in the advanced planning group of now defunct Los Angeles bank (Security Pacific). We were planning the first computer based "checkless society." As part of that effort I developed the first statistically-based credit scoring system using the same programs I had installed at the University of Chicago. The system worked exactly as I had predicted and made ten million dollars for the bank in the first year. I was awarded a $500 bonus for my efforts.

I went on to work in the computer consulting division of Booz, Allen, and Hamilton. There I conducted computer system studies for Weyerhauser, the State of Washington Department of Highways, several now defunct brokerage firms, and the Automobile Club of Southern California.

My next job was at Capital Research Corporation were I ran the systems department, then a department doing statistical analysis of companies and the stock market, and then as an analyst on the natural gas and electric utility industries.

Lastly, I was a Senior Vice President and manager of portfolio managers for the Pacific Century Group -a investment management firm headquartered in San Diego.

I'm now semi-retired and living on a hill top overlooking Donner Lake in the high Sierras. I do consulting and other work for non-profit groups.