Abstract: Richard Gentry, a consummate programmer, describes his personal background in Texas, his education at Texas A&M and then his service in the US Air Force. He discusses going to work at IBM and teaching punch card equipment and then programming on the 1401 and 1620 computers. He talks about how he came up with the concept of the Gentry Monitor and how it turned into the FASTER Type II Program at IBM. He relates leaving IBM to work for SYSDYN (founded by Bill Millard) and then working as an independent contractor after SYSDYN closed its doors. Richard covers how he and his wife, Grace, founded Gentry Inc. which used independent contractors not employees to perform professional services projects for its clients. He describes some of the major projects in which he was involved over the years including his work at Computer Election Systems and MJB Coffee and Hills Brothers. He closes with his going to work as the Systems Administrator at Gentry Inc, in order to sell the company.

Oral History of Richard Gentry

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