Today's Featured Biography

 
Neil Wolfe

I attended Providence College in Rhode Island. Left PC in 1961 and got a job as a junior programmer at Equitable Life Insurance Company in Washington D.C. Learned some of the ins and outs of the IBM 1401. Left Equitable in 1962 and went to work for Wolf Research and Development Corp. one of the first computer consulting companies in the US. Worked at Space Track outside of Boston tracking Russian satellites. Moved to the Manned Spacecraft Center outside of Houston Texas in Feb. 1964. Worked on software development in support of the Gemini program. Temporary duty at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. Returned to Texas and joined Lockheed Electronics Co. Assisted in the development of the Real Time Biomedical Data Acquisition and Storage System in support of the Apollo program. After we landed on the moon, I joined Control Data in Kansas City providing pre and post sales support for real time, optical character recognition and scientific computer applications. CDC transferred me back to Houston to work on the design of a flight simulator for the Space Shuttle. Upon completion of the design I moved to help CDC in conjunction with Lockheed to design the hardware and software interfaces for the Shuttle Program Information Management System (SPIMS). Lockheed made me an offer I couldn’t turn down! Systems Engineer, heading up the Lockheed design team for all of the applications and systems involved with SPIMS. After SPIMS I lead the designed and development of a New Number Information System for Michigan Bell. We developed the system in Houston and Philadelphia and installed it in Detroit Michigan. Returned to NASA support. Part of the design team for the Aero Design Data Book for the Shuttle.  Directed a team in its development. It is used to make changes in the flight characteristics of the shuttle.  Sent to White Sands Test Facility to design a real time command and control system for testing the Reaction Control Systems and the On-orbit Maneuvering system on the Shuttle.  The design was adopted by the Bureau of Standards as a way to develop floor robotics systems.  Returned to Houston.  Became a supervisor of 27 development programers doing everything from payroll for NASA to data management systems.
Promoted to Project Manager. Designed a network that connected all of Engineering and Science Directorate building and off site contractors via an ethernet and microwave network.  Interfaced this network with the Internet before it had that name.
Sent to Las Vegas to direct the implementation of computers and instruments in Lockheed's Advanced Environmental Labs.  All the attempts to sell Clinical Lab systems in Kansas City came back to Haunt me.  Great fun living on the company in Vegas but a really tough job.  Returned to Houston and went to work for Marketing. Retired from Lockheed in 1998. In 1998 I became a consultant to Wyle Laboratories in Houston.  Replaced all of their networks and desk tops computers.  Lead the Y2K effort for the NASA Science Directorate and Wyle.  Introduced Wyle to Program Management Systems for financials.  Fully retired in 2001. Now I travel as much as I can.  I have been to Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, China, Scotland, Peru (Machu Picchu is incredible) all 50 states, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France. Ireland, Great Britain, the Chez Republic, India and Nepal. Last year I went to Japan, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Burma. Great trip. This year 2013 I visited Argentina and Chile with special emphasis on Patagonia. For my birthday I visited Athens and Delphi in Greece.
I have been married twice and single now for more than 30 years.  Have three boys Neil II, Lee and Sean.  Three grandchildren, Hunter (a girl), Gavin and Anastasia

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