Working at University CIRCA
June 1974 - July 1976

After the grant was running out at the IFAS Soils department job I checked back at the University Computing Center and got a student programming job there in June of 1974.  In 1975 the computing center was going though a change in which the research part of the center was separating from the university registration and business part.  Initially I worked at the busisiness part called the Northeast Reginal Datacenter (NERDC) befor the research part split off. The research part got a new name called Center for Instructional and Research Computer Activities (now The Office of Academic Technology) or just CIRCA or as we later called it CIRCUS. The staff, including myself, that became CIRCA moved out of the computing center down the street to Weil Hall.  After a year or so I couldn't afford to go to school full time so I got a full time Programmer I position at CIRCA and then went to school part time. This was a really good arrangement for as a UF employee I could take two courses each quarter for free. (see more about CIRCA here)

I really liked working at CIRCA the work was interesting and a really group of people to work with.  One was Robin who was also a student programmer my age.    We took many of the same courses so we studied together and worked together.  I became totally in love with Robin but could never tell her because she lived with her high school boyfriend Kevin who was in med school.  She and Kevin later got married and had at least one child.  It was Robin that got me interested in modern dance and was the reason I got my first cat Kathleen.

One of the things I was responsible for at CIRCA was the maintenance for the remote batch stations which were Harris Corp. equipment. As a result of this I got to become good friends with the Harris service engineer and later got my job in Melbourne as a result.