Victor R. Volkman

Victor was born in Grosse Pointe, Michigan and grew up as an early proto-computer nerd. In 7th grade, he discovered the wonders of time-sharing terminals with a KSR-33 Teletype and a 110 baud modem. He was hooked on computer games quickly and computer programming immediately. Within two years, he had purchased his first "personal computer" and rapidly began checking out every book on computer languages in local libraries. There being no opportunities for self-taught programmers in 1982, it became abundantly clear that a degree in Computer Science would be needed and he enrolled at Michigan Tech University. He completed his B.S. in Computer Science in 1986, graduating cum laude. While at school, he was a seminal member of Michigan Tech Software, a spinoff of Michigan Tech Ventures aimed at capitalizing the talents of young computer programmers in contract-bid jobs. He attained the position of Senior Programmer there in his 3.5 years there, leaving only because the company was closing. Returning to his home in Southeast Michigan, his first contract was at Software Services of Ann Arbor, Michigan. This led him eventually to a fulltime job at Condor Computer Corporation, one of the early contenders in the burgeoning PC database business. In the years before Microsoft Access, it was dBASE-III and later dBASE-IV which were the competition. Condor Computer could not compete against the market dominance of Ashton-Tate's dBASE and that company folded as well in 1989.