JUNE 1978 - Cont These people's ideas are the basis of the concepts and attitudes of DPI today. But, you can't run a corporation on ideas. The money had to come from somewhere. Legend has it that one of the original stockholders was the local barber from Los Altos. Later, Allstate Insurance showed their faith in DPI after seeing nothing but a cardboard mock-up of the 1204. DPI's initial prospect for a factory system was Douglas Aircraft. After an evaluation, Douglas decided to "wait a few years to see if the company would make it." Ten years later, McDonnell Douglas became one of DPI's first and largest MIT installations. Assets Administration's Jim Musser was the first employee of DPI. When hired in July of '64, Jim handled Personnel, Purchasing and Payroll . (Mable Kenoyer took Payroll off Jim's hands a short time later, and she stills does it today.) Jim vividly recalls the "early" days. "It was a hand-to-mouth existence for a long time. But the people had faith . "The whole concept of DPI was so outrageous for that time, we stuck around to see if it would work." "G.E. Bloomington purchased the first system we ever built. That's probably because they had faith in our engineers--most of them came from G.E. Phoenix." Jim chuckled at that memory. "When G.E.'s check arrived with the Saturday morning 'occupant' mail, everybody breathed easier." Although Jim was employee #1, Don Birmingham, VP of Business Development, holds the title for longest consecutive employment. Don came aboard in September of '65. The 1204 is Don's baby--he did the original design and specification. In cohorts with Jim Pike, they drove the first 1204 scanners with fishing line. Now, Don's office is a museum. Next to his antique timeclock (made in Birmingham, England, of all places), is a 1204 Mark I. He plans to turn it into a slot machine. The "war stories" could go on for pages. Like the one about demonstrating the new 1304 at Silverado. To show how light it was, Don threw it up and caught it. The engineers turned green and prayed for the strength of the scotch tape that was holding the internal components in place. In the past 14 years, a lot of people have come and gone and come again. The saying goes, "Everybody comes back to DPI." Is it true? Ask the father of DCOS, Bill "Bytecracker Nut" Hill. Or what about the Red Baron, Ted Spitzmiller? Or Billy Goodner, Carey Kelley and the rest? DPI has been rich in character(s), imagination, dedication and success. Our impressive list of 200+ customers worldwide adds an exclamation point to our name. Happy Father's Day, NCR!