After graduating in 1972 as a psychology major from EMU, Jack Rutt got his first job in the business world at Goodville Mutual Casualty Company in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
Rutt initially earned $1.85 per hour as a trainee in underwriting. Three years later – at age 25 – he was named head of the automobile underwriting department, succe ...More
This is a man who spent much of 1970-71 in Belgium’s national library absorbing British computer research. He was learning French too in Brussels, so that he could use French to teach math, physics and economics at a Congolese mission school.
This is a man who lived with his wife in a mud hut for two years – so remote in the eastern Con ...More
It all started in a corner of EMU’s old administration building in 1980. Two employees began tinkering – on their own time − with ways for colleges and universities to manage their administrative affairs with a new technology called computers.
The employees – Dwight Wyse ‘68, the school’s director of business affairs, ...More
On his Messiah College application in the early ‘80s, LeVon Smoker checked computer science as his major (with a pen—the online application being years in the future) “on a whim,” he recalls. “Computers were new, I thought it would be fun, and not a lot of people would be doing it.”
Since his graduation in 1986, Smoker h ...More
When asked what he does in his spare time, Lynn Roth ’99 mentions his 3D printer, home built with the help of open source plans. He’s printed “doodads,” his catch-all word for a variety of objects to replace, repair or decorate things around the house for his wife, Anita, and a horse or two, as well as some carriage wheels, for his equine-craz ...More
Running a power plant effectively requires keeping tabs on an awful lot of data relating to fuel consumption, power output, weather conditions, grid demand, etc. & etc. And in turn, keeping tabs on all this data effectively requires clever software that allows users to visualize and understand what might otherwise be a confounding torrent of raw informati ...More
Dan Shenk-Evans ’92 characterizes his career in technology as “falling backwards” into God’s calling. For years, every position he sought in direct social ministry eventually led him reluctantly to a computer, where he would quickly solve IT problems and streamline organizational workflow.
“I wasn’t sure I would find meaningful w ...More
Each holiday, Rick Rutt ’84 and his family add an ornament from Ten Thousand Villages to their Christmas tree. This year, 14 ornaments from different countries hang from its branches, a sign of Rutt’s commitment to the business and its values. When Rutt purchases gifts for himself and his family, he has a special affinity for Indonesian crafts. He spent h ...More
Starting in refugee camps
Philip Borkholder’s ’89 journey to information technology began by majoring in fields that had little to do with computer science: biology and international agricultural development.
This led to a five-year stint with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) shortly after graduation in 1989. Borkholde ...More
If a computer glitch threatens to derail something like a state-required proficiency test at Harrisonburg (Virginia) High School, Craig Shoemaker’s phone is bound to start ringing.
“[Teachers] get anxious,” he said, chuckling. “I’m the one they try to get a hold of.”
A computer resource technicia ...More
