More Photos from ICOM in San Diego

Three dozen more pictures from ICOM's San Diego party, this time from Jim Fisher's camera.

Please note also that rather than attempting to maintain a contact list as we have in the past, it's been suggested that ICOM alumni use LinkedIn.com to keep in touch; it's simpler to let people update their own information as it changes.

ICOM in San Diego, February 1989

Dave Meyer passed along these photos of ICOM's 1989 trip to San Diego. Of ICOM's marketing exploits, this is probably the most famous. Scott basically flew the whole company out to throw a party for a gathering of Allen-Bradley distributors, and what a party it was!

Dave Meyer writes, "After a lot of years in the bottom of the drawer --- I finally dug out the shots the photographer shot in San Diego. My part in the arrangements was the hotel, rooms, entertainment (a jazz group I hired from LA), the food, booze, pictures...... and the UCLA model. A great weekend 19 years ago --- wonder what's changed!! Hope everyone enjoys these pictures, and they find you well."

Great pictures; thanks, Dave!

ICOM in the News

ICOM makes an appearance today in this Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story about Rockwell Automation, penned by economics writer John Schmid.

I suppose it qualifies as fair use to quote the relevant paragraph, as it's a small portion of the story:

Rockwell Software owes its founding to a couple of university students at the Milwaukee School of Engineering. Joe Menter was writing computer code in his apartment near the MSOE campus in 1985 when he met two business partners. They hired another MSOE programmer, and the four founded ICOM Inc., which grew rapidly. Rockwell acquired ICOM nine years later, calling it "one of the strongest and most successful companies in the automation software industry." ICOM formed the heart of Rockwell Software.

Well, that's got a breath of the truth, I guess, although Joe met Scott earlier than this, when working at Amcast. I'd also characterize Scott and Joe as the founders; Eric and I were just two guys invited to the party, and many others followed. I've already written my perspective on this story here under the caption Genesis.

Remember This Button?

Since my first day with ICOM was 20 years ago today (!), I thought I'd post this image of a button I came across recently. I'm not sure who produced these, or for what purpose, but they were all over the place shortly after the merger with Rockwell. It was indeed quite a ride!

Janice's New Baby

We're happy to note that ICOM alumnus Janice Pompa and her husband David have a healthy new baby boy, Logan John. Logan weighed in at just under 10 pounds when he was born on June 1st. He joins several cats at home in Arizona. Congratulations, David and Janice, and Happy Birthday, Logan!

Back when she was working as ICOM's receptionist, Janice had a last name of Keidel, and was one of the regular crew on Joe's boat.

The Passing of Mark Theiler

I regret that we must once again post a death notice here. Word has reached me that Mark Theiler, Scott Zifferer's assistant from the late 80s and early 90s, died of a heart attack in his Theinsville home last Tuesday. The photo above is from the ICOM's trip to San Diego in February of 1989, which Mark was intrumental in planning. (Scott basically flew the entire company to San Diego to crash an Allen-Bradley party; more photos from that trip will be posted soon.)

I best remember Mark's tidy stacks of papers, and the grief he saved us in having to deal directly with lawyers over things like software licensing. I also recall a very funny speech he gave at an ICOM Christmas party; the details are lost to me now, but I remember he got some pretty good laughs speaking about his lighthouse experience. Mark lost his job while the rest of us were in a meeting being assured that no jobs would be lost during the "merger" with Rockwell, which created an unfortunate amount of distrust in the days that followed.

From OnWisconsin.com:

Mark A. Theiler of Theinsville. March 23, 2005 - age 50 yrs. Loving father of Abbey Lynn. Dear brother of Mary Kay (Matthew) Iverson & Kris (Matthew) Sanfilippo. Preceded in death by his father Richard Theiler and mother Betty (Ken) Keitel. Further survived by other relatives and friends. Funeral service at the funeral home Wed. March 30, 7 PM. Visitation Wed. 4 PM until time of service. In lieu of flowers memorials to the family appreciated.

MUELLER FUNERAL HOME
W63 N527 HANOVER AVE
CEDARBURG 262-377-0380
www.muellerfuneralhome.com

Our thoughts and prayers are with Mark's family.

Heart of Gold

It must have been 1990 or 1991 when Joe bought that 45-foot Bayliner, one of the largest boats in Milwaukee's McKinley Marina at the time. He christened it the Heart of Gold after the improbable spacecraft in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; the Neil Young song was just a meaningless coincidence.

That Bayliner was Joe's first boat. Neither of us had any experience boating, in fact, so we took a Coast Guard course to learn safety, navigation, and how to tie the thing up so it wouldn't float off on adventures of its own. The course was terrific, taught by an old salt in a boating store way out on west Capitol Drive. (I'm fairly certain they no longer teach the course at that location, however; in recent years the building has been converted to a large, modern-looking church.)

For navigation, Joe outfitted the Heart of Gold with a state-of-the-art GPS receiver wired up to a PC running some pretty nice navigation software, and bolted a big color CRT in place in the pilothouse. This gave us a live "You Are Here" chart while we were underway. An autopilot, radar, and depth finder completed the instrumentation.

Now besides being 45 feet long, the Heart of Gold was also a fairly wide vessel, making it quite the floating party barge. Joe set up the enclosed lower deck with a nice sound system and ceiling-mounted television projector (which were huge contraptions back then --- it's visible above Janice in this picture). Throw in a well-stocked bar/kitchenette, a blender built into the countertop, and enough room to sleep... well, quite a few people, actually, if you count the pilothouse, the sofa in the lower deck, a couple actual cabins with beds, and, in a pinch, ample floor space... and you have the setting for some very memorable voyages.

Probably the favorite destination for these trips was Grand Haven, Michigan, more or less straight across Lake Michigan from Milwaukee. Grand Haven featured a great marina, one of the upper midwest's best beaches, and lively summer night life. Another favorite destination was Traverse City, Michigan and the surrounding area. At least one trip took us up to Mackinac Island and over to Sault St. Marie, then back down the Wisconsin coast with stops in Sturgeon Bay and Manitowoc.

Once in a while Joe and Scott would entertain distributors or other out-of-town guests on Joe's boat, but usually it was crewed by Joe's friends at ICOM. Eventually Joe traded the rather slow Bayliner for a much faster boat, but it never quite achieved the party status of its predecessor.

Getting somewhere quickly wasn't the magic of the Heart of Gold; like ICOM itself, it was the journey and the people we traveled with that made it special.

Here are a few photos of the ship and her crew for you to enjoy.