MLMUG Member of the Month, by Gail
An Occasional Look at the Person Behind the Member

By Gail Montgomery,
MLMUG Social Secretary

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Bob Pollack

February 2005 opens with Bob as our Member-of-the-Month. You'll see that he's an academic with a sense of humor, as well as a loyal member of the MLMUG. Take a few minutes to find out more about Bob.

— Gail Montgomery


I have been requested to provide a brief bio about myself so that you will have some idea of another attending MLMUG member (who usually sits somewhere on the right side of the room).

I am a native Philadelphian - born, raised and still live in the city. During WW2 I served as a Hospital Corpsman in the U.S. Navy, and after discharge, went back to school, finally winding up at the Medical Units Division, Memphis, TN, of the University of Tennessee from where I received my Ph.D. in Biochemistry. Except for a few years as a Senior Research Scientist with the government, the remainder of my professional career was as Professor of Biochemistry at Temple University, and I retired some years ago from the Department of Biochemistry of the School of Medicine.

Married in 1952, my wife and I lived in Philadelphia. The younger of my two daughters (with her family) still live in Philadelphia, while my older daughter (and family) live in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Way, way back in my early academic career, computers had arrived on the scene and I felt that it was more than a fad; that they were going to stick around. So, I arranged it so that my department upgraded from its Marchant (which had a screen, could add, subtract, multiply, divide, AND CALCULATE SQUARE ROOT) to, if I remember correctly, an Apple 2E (or whatever came before that). Imagine the loyalty and absolute feisance that I now received from my secretary with its introduction. Before, it was usual and painful to indicate where, in a 60- page grant proposal, I wanted her to insert three or four paragraphs on page 16 - which meant retyping the entire rest of the manuscript! Then reproofed again, very carefully. Now - all that anguish was gone! Ah, progress.

I have been a MLMUGer for a number of years (Bob Barton would know how many, better than I remember), and I never voluntarily miss a meeting; I don�t ever remember leaving a meeting without having learned something. At home I still have every computer I�ve ever owned from the Apple 2E on. I didn�t save them deliberately, I just didn�t then, and still don�t, have the courage to let go of them. My first experience with color, I believe, was with my SE30.

Does anyone know of an update software program for my abacus?

— Bob Pollack


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© 2004 by Bob Pollack & MLMUG
Posted 02/05/05
Updated 03/03/05