2. Another HIS-tory Hero
• We interrupted our series on Frank Poggio’s HMDS micro-based
system for the sad news of the passing of Bill Corum of McAuto.
• Bill was the VP of Data Center Operations at McAuto, easily one
of the most important positions in a shared system vendor!
• Well, this week we’re gonna interrupt the story on micros a 2nd
time to tell the story of the VP of Ops at Mac’s arch-enemy - SMS:
• Jim Carter– let me start by saying
Jim is doing pretty good right
now, but fighting a serious illness.
I just spoke to him this weekend
and it was such a rush hearing his
guts & fighting spirit fighting his
damn disease that I had to tell
the story to all his many old
friends from King of Prussia.
3. A True Soul Brother
• I first met Jim back in 1970 when he joined SMS from California
Blue Cross where he ran their giant IBM mainframe data center.
• We were struggling (to put in mildly) with running SHAS on our
360 mainframe in Bridgeport, PA (hadn’t moved to K of P yet).
• Jim popped up one day and was hard to miss: one of the few
African-American employees at SMS back in those early days.
• I remember sitting in his cramped
office where he had pasted up all
of the data flow of IBM’s SHAS on
the wall, to try to document the
correct sequence of running the
hundreds of programs in the JCL.
• He had cut and pasted dozens of
flowcharts from the SHAS OPS
and PDM manuals to figure it out
4. Bright, Hard Working, and Fun!
• It was quite an intellectual feat to figure out that job flow, as SHAS
would abend often, and restarting correctly saving clients from re-
submitting hundreds of batches of 5081 keypunch cards, or not!
• So the guy was among the smartest stars in a company full of
bright boys, yet he was also one of the most down-to-earth people
in a corporate world of wing-tip shoes, white shirts & blue ties.
• Jim’s afro hair style gave away his unpretentious approach to the
business world: he would challenge you with some tough question
or problem, debate the issue in a rapid-fire give & take, and then
punch you in the arm & tell a joke when it was all resolved.
• Long hair back then was a symbol of how we younger dudes were
struggling to look correct in a world where image was everything.
If you remember how SMS was full of ex-
IBMers, we long-hairs definitely stood out!
5. An Athlete & A Gentleman
• Jim excelled in areas outside the office, as I learned to my chagrin:
– In 1971, I decided to challenge his operations department to a
basketball game against we IDs (Installation Directors).
– IDs were decidedly older and paunchier than Jim’s operators,
but I was bored and single at the time, so what the heck…
– We met at the YMCA gym in Bridgeport, and started shooting
around as a warm-up – if you shoot hoops, you know the
tradition of giving the ball back to whoever makes a shot, right?
- Well, Jim comes out and makes a
jumper, gets the ball back and makes
a hook, gets the ball and makes a
long one-hander, gets the ball back
and makes a turn-around jumper,
gets the ball back and… you get the
picture, for about 20 shots!! Needless
to say, his Ops guys murdered we IDs.
6. Big Promotion!
• In 1982, Jim really made it big at SMS: he was promoted to VP of
Operations by Carl Witonsky, SMS’s VP for all of Systems & Ops,
about the same time Bill Corumwas promoted to VP at McAuto.
• I know it’s not politically correct to even raise the issue, but for a
black man to earn the honor and recognition of being promoted to
VP was a very big deal, quite fitting with Jim’s accomplishments.
• I doubt if anyone
keeps such records,
but I’ll bet Jim was
one of the first (and
most deserving)
Afro-Americans to
earn such an honor
in the whole US IT
industry back in
those halcyon days…
7. “Act II” of Jim’s HIS Career
• Jim eventually left SMS in the late 80s, flush with penny-a-share
stock that had grown amazingly. He took it easy for a while, then
was recruited by another SMS HIS-tory hero: Harvey Wilson.
• After a stint as SMS’ CEO, Harvey too left the corporate jungle for
a few years pursuing his love of boats. After a while, he yearned
for another shot at the brass ring, and formed a company called
“NewCo,” recruiting a bunch of former SMS-ers, including Jim.
• Harvey acquired several quality HIS systems to build his new HIS:
- TDS– ex-Technicon, the clinical suite, and
- SDK – Sam David Kaufman’s hot financials.
Jim set up the “remote hosting” data centers
for the new firm that Harvey built up to where
it eclipsed most leading HIS systems. The
fitting name for such an up-start venture?
- ECLIPSYS, and the rest is HIS-tory…
8. Sad Turn of
Events…
• Shortly after our 40th SMS
reunion in October of 2009,
Jim was diagnosed with
Pancreatic cancer.
• Like Steve Jobs, he’s fighting
it just as hard as all the other challenges he overcame in his career.
• Here’s Jim at the reunion celebrating with Tony Sammartino, Mgr of
SMS’ Customer Service Center, who ran SMS’ data center in 1969…
• Jim seemed to have the disease beat thanks in no part to his always
positive attitude, competitive spirit and amazing joie de vivre –
- He told me last Sunday he was out dancing on Saturday night!!
• After countless chemo &rad therapy, he’s still doing battle with it...
• So here’s to Jim Carter, HIS-tory hero extraordinaire – keep fighting!
