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Robby Simpson was a UT Computer Science graduate and the IBM Systems Engineer for UT in 1968 when the Data Processing Division was reorganized.
We don't know much about Data Processing pre-Robby. The Registrar's office had acquired key punch equipment in the early 1960's, and payroll/accounting had acquired equipment independently around the same time. Sometime thereafter, the two were brought together as the Data Processing Division within the Office of Accounting. And apparently things weren't going well, there was some reorganization and Robby, age 28, was hired March 1, 1968 as the new director.
When Robby arrived on his first day as director they were having trouble starting the computer. He reached in his briefcase and pulled out a deck of punch cards containing DOS/360 which he still had from being the IBM SE, and brought up the system.
He brought the IBM attitudes of professionalism and service orientation. Male programmers and analysts wore coat and tie, and women appropriate business attire. Only systems programmers – who rarely met with end-users – were exempt. This did not change until the mid 1990's, after Robby had left. He also brought from IBM their standard aptitude test, and it became the basis for DP programmer hiring.
Two staff members from the previous group were still around in the days we remember: Wes Henderson and Lawrence Hall.
Wes had worked at UT since 1953, and had been the leader of the programming group in the Registrar's office. He became assistant director of Data Processing following the reorganization.
Lawrence had been hired only recently (October, 1967). By 1972 his title was Manager of Programmer Services
Among Robby's first new hires were:
* Cheryl Long, graduating from the Math department in Spring, 1968.
* Carl Wang, hired August, 1968
* Terry Alexander, an elementary school teacher from west Texas, was on campus for a program in the College of Education in Summer 1969, and joined Data Processing in July.
* Scott Dolan
Terry and Scotty married in September 1972, and Scott left in January for an IT management position in another state agency.
In Fiscal year 1972-73, the standard salary for a “Computer Programmer I” was $10,248/yr.; Robby was paid $21,600 as director.
Robbie’s brother Tom Simpson, also a UT graduate, was one of the principle authors of HASP, the predecessor of JES2 which we still use on the Administrative Systems mainframe. (JES 2 is the Job Entry Subsystem which manages batch jobs and the SPOOL on MVS systems. *UQ and *UTQA are essentially windows into what JES2 does.)
Thanks to Robbie, we have complete electronic student and HR records going back to 1972.
