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Los Angeles ACM Chapter Meeting

Wednesday, June 7, 2000 

Awards to Outstanding Members Convocation Honoring David Oppenheim

Roger Mills, M.C.

The annual tradition of presenting awards to outstanding members at the final meeting of the year will continue this month - with a major change. In lieu of the usual technical presentation, we (and the national organization) will honor long-time leader, David Oppenheim, for his over 35 years of service to ACM and the Chapter. Roger Mills, twice Chair of the Chapter, will organize the meeting and serve as the Master of Ceremonies. Friends and members with personal recollections of their service with Dave are invited to contribute to the meeting. (Alert Roger at 310-377-6226 or roger_mills@acm.org.) Please join his many friends from current and past years for dinner (see menu and prices below) and an hour of reminiscing with Dave Oppenheim. 

A Record of Service:
1963 Member of ACM 
1964,68 Speaker at SIGPLAN meetings 
1960s Treasurer, Vice-Chair and Chair of SIGPLAN 
1971 Chairman of New Records System Committee 
1977 Chairman of Industry Representatives Committee 
1980-84 Chairman of Government Committee 
1983 Chairman of Nominations Committee 
1985 Vice-Chairman 
1986 Chairman 
1987-99 Ran many Professional Development Seminars 
1988-90 ACM Regional Representative 
1989 Speaker at Chapter meeting 
1989-98 DATA-LINK Production Manager 
1991-92 Chairman of ACM Professional Chapters 
1992 Chairman of ACM Representatives Committee 
1993-95 Chairman ACM Local Activities Board 
1993-00 Records Controller 
Meeting summary
---------------
Roger Mills was Master of Ceremonies for the major part of the program honoring Dave Oppenheim. Roger set the stage for the honors to come with a brief biography that sketched Dave's life - from Nazi Berlin, to Shanghai and Bolivia, and finally to the U.S. where he finished high school and enlisted in the Air Force where he made his first contact with computers. 
In 1958 he earned a B.A. in Math at San Jose State . His early work was at SDC on the Q7 (SAGE) computer and the JOVIAL language, and (influenced by Gene Jacobs) he joined LA ACM and became active in SIGPLAN. In 1967 he and two partners formed Abacus Programming, from which he finally retired in 1992. 
Always superb at organization, in 1980-84 as Chairman of the Government Committee, he established the Position Notebooks and Business Schedule, still in use today. He served on the committee for the ACM '81 national convention in Los Angeles, the start of nearly 20 years of continuous service to the Chapter, Southern California Region, and National ACM. Following his year as Chair, he was Regional Representative, Chairman of ACM Professional Chapters, and Chairman of ACM Local Activities Board. Along with Bill Poucher, he started the "BIG Event", an activity featuring the Student and Professional Chapters of ACM. 
During this time on the national scene, he also: 
* helped organize the "Think 'n Do" group to help people with disabilities use computers, 
* ran seven years of Tutorial Week Los Angeles, a highly popular (and profitable!) series of Professional Development Seminars, and 
* served at Publisher of DATA-LINK. (He is responsible for its present look.) 
(My apologies to Dave for the sketchiness of this biography; we don't have space enough for all of his activities and contributions. Ed.)
  • Bob Mercer claimed to have known Dave longer than any of his many former colleagues, from the days of a baby sitting co-op in which Dave was one of the few men who shared the duties. Those 'babies' (including son Michael who was present) are now 40+. Dave brought to ACM his sense of responsibility and willingness to do more than his share. 
  • Marsha Hopwood met Dave about 1965 at SDC and SIGPLAN where he introduced her to meta-compilers, and worked with him on ACM '81. When she took over the Publications Board, he replaced her as Regional Representative. And later she talked him into running for Chapter Chair. (Her faith in Dave clearly served the Chapter and ACM well.) She also introduced him to calamari, which he liked until he found out it was squid!
  • Lee Schmidt also knew Dave from the early days of LA ACM and SIGPLAN. He recounted their presentation on meta-compilers, describing how Dave roughed up some felt (for an early version of Velcro) with a dog brush, and (confirming his reputation as a packrat) returned the dog brush! 
  • Several people, too far away or too bashful, sent Roger e-mail with their congratulations (or otherwise): 
  • Jerry Koory, from Pismo Beach ("Congratulations on a richly deserved honor.") 
  • Mike Rogson ("He made Tutorial Week LA work fun, but owes us our last TWLA dinner.") Barbara McNurlin, from Sacramento ("What a great idea to honor Dave.") 
  • Don Medley ("He deserves any recognition he gets.") 
  • Bill Goodin ("He was the driving force for TWLA.") 
  • Liz Manderfield ("We would have been lost without his advice; he was always ready to volunteer and a mentor to many of us.") 
  • Fran Sinhart, from ACM ("This is wonderful news.") 
  • Stephanie August ("He taught me an amazing amount, just by watching him in action.") 
  • Bill Poucher of Baylor Univ., ACM Fellow and colleague from Dave's work with the Professional Chapters and Local Activities Board, gave a humorous, rambling ("a 10-minute talk packed into an hour") discourse on Dave's belief in commitment, his business plans ("every activity with Dave ran a surplus"), and his contributions to the "BIG Event", ACM Communications Services (for which three ACM presidents took credit in their election campaigns), and the ACM Programming Contest. Bill presented Dave with a certificate with a Latin inscription meaning "A comrade, always faithful." 
  • Hal Berghel of UNLV, who won the ACM Distinguished Service award in 1996 and also an ACM Fellow, closed the long program, by recalling that few people make an important difference. Dave was one who did. Hal presented Dave with an autographed copy of his latest article in "Communications", an ACM VIP polo shirt, a letter from Patricia Ryan, Deputy Executive Director of ACM, and an award plaque from Barbara Simon and John White, President and CEO respectively, of ACM. 
  • John Halbur, Awards Chairman, presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Dave. Dave claimed the microphone for the final words of the evening, graciously expressing his thanks for all the support and kind words. 
  • Over 40 people were present, some from long ago and far away, for this special event. 
    		•

    • The Los Angeles Chapter normally meets the first Wednesday of each month at the Ramada Hotel, 6333 Bristol Parkway, Culver City. The program begins at 8 PM.   From the San Diego Freeway (405) take the Sepulveda/Centinela exit southbound or the Slauson/Sepulveda exit northbound.

    The menu choices are listed in the article above.

    To make a reservation, call or e-mail John Radbill, (818) 353-8077, and indicate your choice of entree, by Sunday before the dinner meeting.
    There is no charge or reservation required to attend the program. Parking is free!

    For membership information, contact Lee Schmidt, (805) 393-6224 or follow this link.


    Other Affiliated groups

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    Sadly, TACNUM will be disbanded soon due to lack of interest in Numerical Analysis.

    For information contact John Radbill at (818) 353-8077 (or jradbill@acm.org).

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