Having spent the last 17 years working in the "Pick" Industry, I have had the opportunity to meet thousands of individuals who, in their own way, have contributed to its overall success and longevity. These unsung heroes provide a constant base of satisfied "Pick" users.

An excellent example of one such individual is my close friend, Jim Gallagher, of Sunset Beach, California.

Jim is truly one of the unsung Pick pioneers, having sold and installed his first "Pick" machine - a Microdata REALITY system - to his first client around 1976. He is a roving "Jack-of-all-trades" with his client base, one of whom is Crown Prince, Inc., a Southern California company that sells canned seafoods all over the world. (You may have had their sardines). He's been with them for 18 years, as their "DP consultant". As they have grown, he has been there with them, constantly improving the way they do business and adapting their system to their changing needs.

When Crown Prince wants something new, either within their "Pick" system, or even "externally", such as a Windows-based workstation for the President of the company to be able to use with his Pick solution, Jim makes it happen. He's an individual who is not afraid of learning something new. He's tenacious, hard-working, and honest. He'll tell his clients if he doesn't know the answer to the question, and then go figure out the solution. And he's dedicated. His client base testifies to that. Crown Prince, for instance, being a family-run business, treats him as part of their family.

In Jim's own words (from his Web page at http://jonsisk.com/jim/): "James Gallagher & Associates provides on demand 'buck stops here' systems services including systems design, implementation and maintenance. New clients receive a toolkit of diverse and powerful systems tools such as: GENeralized Data Entry program, Create-PROC automatic PROC generator, Formsmith forms generator, DO, a command-line basic interpreter."

Jim's Web page is a mastery of understatement. The main heading, next to a full-color picture of his smiling face, says "Notes From an Ordinary Man". But he's far from being "Ordinary". He's both an Intellectual and a Common Man. Among his many interests are Nanotechnology, on which he chairs a study group at the University of California, Irvine. He's also very active in the Libertarian Party and has authored some of the most thought-provoking articles I have ever read, such as "Two Societies: An immodest proposal". The sub-head says "For those who have despaired of saving the society they live in".

Perhaps the most fascinating aspect of him is his fascination with cryogenic preservation ("suspension", he calls it) and the concept of being able to "upload" himself (sort of like the ultimate "FILE-SAVE") with the eventual possibility of being able to "download" into a newly- constructed body. (I wish you luck, Jimbo, and no parity errors. I hope that in thirty or forty years I can download you to my PC to answer a technical question.)

The "Pick" market will always be supported by individuals like Jim, whose continuing dedication to solving business problems makes it all work.

Jon Sisk
www.jes.com

Original article for Computing News & Review, November 1995

Copyright © 1995 Jonathan E. Sisk.

Thanks to Dustan for helping with this column.

Jim Gallagher passed away on December 12th, 1995.