Dale Taylor

Just thought I'd chime in with a couple of stories about my experiences with Glen Culler. He's had a strong influence on my life, in all the right ways, so I wanted to share a couple of my many Glen Culler stories.

I worked for Glen at the UCSB CRL from right after my graduation with a Bachelor's degree in Mathematics at UCSB in 1967 to after my Master's degree in Computer Science (it was dubbed Electrical Engineering then, as no computer science degree was offered) in 1971. Then, after a brief break, I went to work for Glen at Culler Harrison (CHI) until 1977. I left CHI with Jim McGill and Jan Vanderford to form Digital Sound Corporation, but had to bow out very early on due to the necessity to pay the rent. After a few years of contract software development, I joined with Larry Green, Dave Oster, and Steve Roberts to start CMC, and was there for nine years. I now have my own company, Resource Associates, and we are working in the field of Collaborative Computing, or Groupware. I've also been involved in the formation and organization of the South Coast Telecommunications Alliance in Santa Barbara. We're a group that holds monthly meetings in an effort to educate the community about the benefits of telecommunications technology, and to provide an opportunity for relationships to form and ideas to be had about ways to improve the community through telecommunications.

I remember graduating from UCSB with a degree in Mathematics. Abstract mathematics. Had no applications that I knew of in the real world except for teaching, and my temperament was not well suited for that occupation. My friend Jim McGill suggested I talk to Glen Culler at the Computer Research Lab and see if he'd hire me as a computer programmer. When I met with Glen, he said he'd hire me if I could learn to program an IBM 360 in assembly language in a week. So John Pickens and I went into a room with Ron Stoughton for a week, and Ron attempted to teach us assembly language programming. I guess I passed the test because Glen hired me. I got to program many of the mathematical subroutines in the IBM 360 version of the Culler-Fried system. Wasn't abstract math, but it was fun and challenging.

After going to work for Glen at CHI, part of my job was to "argue" with Glen. He always felt that he didn't really understand a subject unless he could explain it to someone. So when he wanted to build an array processor to analyze speech waveforms, he had to convince someone that his ideas would work, and my job was to be difficult to convince. So I tried my best. It all worked out pretty well in general, but I do remember one day when I was a little too good at my job. I don't remember the subject, but I do remember Glen getting so upset at my argument that he unceremoniously threw his coffee cup against the wall and stormed out of the room. I felt about one inch tall at that point. We got over it though and went on to build the Array Processor (I don't remember the model number of the device), and the minicomputer that ran it, over on Aero Camino in Goleta.

Many people have interesting stories about how they first came to know Glen. He has always been a brilliant and original thinker, and open minded about people and their personality traits. If they were smart, that was good enough for Glen. And he seemed to be able to bring out the best in the people around him. I believe that most people who came to know Glen over the years share a deep admiration and respect for his intellect and humanity.

Back to Glen Culler Honorary Lecture Home Page

Back to College of Engineering