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My Career
| My jobs | My schools | My retirement | My personal life | |
 I retired in 2018 but I worked for 35 years in Boston as a computer programmer, for the last 15 years a web programmer. I had other jobs before this but I went back to college and became a computer programmer, so that is what I did for the bulk of my career. I worked for Safety Insurance in the Financial District in Boston for the last 24 years of my working life. I feel very lucky that I discovered this profession that I liked so much when I was younger. As it did for many people, working in hi-tech (and writing code) became my thing. I worked in the Boston Financial District for decades and commuted by boat from Hingham where I live.
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My jobs
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These are the jobs I had after college as a computer programmer, listed in reverse chronological order (most recent at top), with the computers and coding languages shown for each company. I had many jobs before
I went to college and became a programmer in 1983, but they are not listed here.
1994-2018 Safety Insurance, Boston, MA — the job I retired from (see location in aerial view of downtown Boston) Perl on Linux servers, VisualAge-RPG on AS/400 computers
Safety used to have casual dress summers, then in the fall we went back to full dress. In 1998 the company decided not to go back so I stopped wearing suits to work. Since then the only time I wear a suit is to a wedding, usually of friends' kids (and mine). Safety has 3 websites I worked on:
Carter Rice Paper Co., Boston, MA – this was a Boston division of International Paper (IP). RPG initially on IBM System/38 then on AS/400 computers. This was the first job I had where I could work from home, dialing up to the computer at work using a modem like we did in those days (because I needed this access for 24/7 support the company paid for a separate phone line to my house for the modem). I only did this at night, going to work in the office every day. One of the things that was interesting about this job was the occasional travel to other Carter Rice locations all over the East Coast including Washington (DC), New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Harrisburg (PA). I most frequently went to the Washington and New York offices, and took one‑time trips to Charlotte (NC). Kansas City, Cincinnati, and Chicago (where I flew back with half-cooked deep-dish pizza in the overhead storage bin on the plane). This company was located on Summer Street across the bridge from downtown Boston. My first job commuting to Boston by commuter boat, which I did for the rest of my career. 1985-1988 National Teledata, Norwell, MA COBOL and RPG on IBM System/38 computer This was a startup company providing software to process medical claims for insurance companies. Doctors' offices ran our software on PCs and dialed up to us to edit and submit their claims. We had people who wrote the PC software, and I wrote the software that received the claims and called specific programs for insurance companies. I was one of the first programmers hired. When we ordered our computer from IBM I worked for several months at IBM in Providence, RI, an hour commute from my home. An appealing part of this job is that it was in an office park a 15-minute drive from my home. Both my kids were born when I worked there. 1984-1985 Harper & Shuman, Cambridge, MA COBOL on Digital (DEC) VAX computer. The first time I used COBOL, the language I learned in college. The company was a provider of project control and financial management software to architectural and engineering firms. I wrote custom applications. 1983-1984 ADP (Automatic Data Processing), Waltham, MA English programming language on MicroData computer The company's main business is payroll systems, which I had nothing to do with. I worked in a department that provided custom programming for small businesses. An interesting part of this job was going to customers' offices to upgrade their MicroData computer operating systems. Another interesting part of this job is that I drove up Rt. 128 to Waltham in bumper-to-bumper traffic to commute, not something I have done since. I went for 2 weeks of training at the headquarters in New Jersey, the first time I ever flew on a plane for work. My first programming job after college. It was a terrible rush hour commute up Route 128 to Waltham. |
My schools
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I went to many years of college at these schools but kept changing my field of study before graduating: The school I eventually graduated from in 1983 (CCE) I was at for only a year, and I had a great, well-paying career
for decades before I retired in 2018. Idaho (home state):
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After retiring, though I've learned and used many programming languages, the only programming language I use now is HTML for this website (and a little JavaScript). I've put a few Java and Perl things on the site but I don't code any of those anymore. I never realized how sexist programming has become until I read an article pointing out that although the earlier programmers in the 50s and 60s, who wrote the code on the first computers, were mostly women (Margaret Hamilton wrote critical software used on the Apollo 11 Moon Landing), programming has become a primarily male occupation (unfortunately there is much reflective sexism and racism in Silicon Valley). I have known many women programmers and my managers on my first two jobs were women programmers, so I don't entirely agree with this. More power to women programmers! |
My retirement
I retired in May, 2018, after college and many decades working as a computer programmer, the last job at Safety Insurance for 24 years, and even though our office had the official designated address of "20 Custom House Street" that was a side street so the front door to the building that everybody used was on Broad Street (note the 20 address on the
column). I turned 70 that April, which is when I had planned to retire, but I couldn't leave the company just yet because since 1999 I have done a 20-mile fundraising walk, the Walk for Hunger, the first week of May every year with my very good friend and colleague Margarette that I collect donations for at work (the company generously matches pledges from my colleagues), so I didn't retire until after the walk in May (I miss you, Margarette, and our daily walks). I took up Perl as my main programming language and became a web programmer for the last 15 years of my career, and I was making over $100,000/year
when I retired.
When I see people on the street in my neighborhood I forget that not everybody is retired, or maybe not working becase of the pandemic. Some people have normal jobs like it used be for everybody. I read an article in the paper that said older workers in their 60s who got laid off in the 2008 recession are having a hard time getting jobs. Companies think they will increase health care costs with ill health, and also employers think they can't learn new things, aren't good with technology, and reject new ideas. Whew! I'm glad I was college educated to do contemporary things and was able to continue working until I retired. I haven't made any plans yet so retirement is just like being on vacation. Patti will work as a Nurse Practitioner for a few more years, then after she retires we can do some serious, non-vacation traveling. I applied for Social Security in July, 2018, and they said they would date it back to April, when I turned 70. Patti can also collect an amount equal to 50% of my SS pay (which is NOT deducted from my payments) until she turns 70 and starts collecting her own Social Security. Let's hope that Trump and the GOP don't screw this up. |
 Our wedding |
I have been married to Patti since 1979 and we have owned 3 homes in the suburbs, raised 2 boys (who have graduated from college and now have great adult lives). Alex, our oldest, lives in New York City and teaches in college. Ben (a few years younger), who previously lived in San Francisco and New York City, now lives in Taiwan and is also a programmer like his dad. |
 My family |
 is a Boston suburb on the <i>South Shore</i>&comment=I commuted <a href=
'hingham.html#boat' class='black'><i>by boat</i></a> for 35 years to my jobs in the city "Boston suburb")
![green screen](picture.html?image=images/green_screen_display.jpg&topcap=<i>"Green Screen"</i> monitor on AS/400 computer){kind=link}
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, Patti (Mom), Alex, Laura, Ben (brother)<br>Alex said no ties at his wedding){kind=link}
 in <i>rush hour</i>){kind=link}
 to job in Waltham&comment=State Route 128 (what we call it) is same highway as Federal Route I-95){kind=link}
