The Link Volume 6, Issue 4 -- Winter 2006
Where Are They Now? Judy Elder
Judy Elder came to PSL in October of 1968 as part of Dr. Gardiner's "student spouse" program, where the wives of NMSU students were hired as secretaries in order to help with the financing of their college education. She originally worked for Jim Boyer in PSL's Purchasing Department as a Clerk/Typist, but transferred after a few years to the Computer Analysis Section, working for Roberta ("Bert") Westhafer as an I/O Clerk. At that time, mainframe computers were used for data processing. These huge systems relied on mechanical card readers and punches, reel-to-reel tape, large chain-driven impact printers, and programmable keypunch units for input and output. One of PSL's first mainframe computers was the IBM S/360, which had a staggering 512K of memory!
When Ms. Westhafer retired in 1977, Judy assumed her position as supervisor of computer operations. She was responsible for operations, the tape library, user services (generating reports and updating databases), data entry, etc. Her responsibilities grew over the years to include voice communications (i.e., the telephone and paging systems). Judy supervised the demolition and re-cabling for telephone and network communications during the construction of PSL's addition in 1992.
Judy retired from PSL in 1999, after 31 years of service. She experienced tremendous advancements in computer technology during her career, from mainframes (where programs and data were stored on cards, then magnetic tape), to early PCs with no hard drives (floppy disks were used for storage), to the networked PCs and supercomputers of today. Judy enjoys traveling, hiking, and geocaching (a GPS stash hunting sport) with her husband, PSL alumnus Dennis Grover. Judy and Dennis live in Las Cruces, where they recently built a new house.
| << Back |