Abacus North: Our Team
First, an apology, a lot of this is from memory and I will be leaving folks out that I would not if my personal central processor was a more perfect machine. The lists that follow are in no particular order.
Sales
Most of sales was handled by Jennifer and myself. The exception was Roger, a super salesman working in the bush (Alaskan for someplace not connected by road). He won a trip to the Bahamas for two for his excellent work with Epson product. We won two other Epson trips, a Acapulco vacation was awarded to our tech at that time. When one to Hong Kong, Macao and China came along, Jennifer and I grabbed it (with Rodger Ellis' help in keeping the store open). Lastly, Jeff Iverson, arranged the sale of a very expensive printer for us as we closed the store.
Stupendous Office Work
- R. Diane Winn - Executive secretary with us before becoming a programmer
- Maria Cercenia (RIP) - neighbor, friend and a good worker, greatly missed
- Robert van Wormer - shipping & receiving expert
- Jonathan Stone - all round great help
- Colleen Consentino - great help with accounting
- Judith Cross - all round paperwork champ
Great Techs
- Richard Innis - not afraid to service a monitor
- Dick Zini - great tech and kept us smiling to boot
- Jim Stone - sometimes nepotism works
- Daniel Whorton - good tech but had to leave for Illinois
- Paul Niehuis (RIP) - a friend and employee - good coder too. We miss you Paul.
- John McGaw - crucial part of making the switch to service - good coder. Recently hiked Hadrian's wall.
- Matt Timken - last but in no way the least of our techs, could fix anything including press equipment at Color Art that he had never seen before
Super Consultants
- L. Kent Saxton (RIP) - strategic planning, greatly missed as a friend
- Rodger Ellis - superb software and hardware man, could make a robot talk!
He was also watched the shop for us for our very infrequent vacations,
without which we would surely be totally nuts by now. Co-hosted, with Dawn Scott, a wonderful party before we drove off to New York
Favorite Customers
- Dana Stabenow - Author extraordinaire, the meaning of must read!
- Marco Pignalberi (RIP) - Executive with the Municipality of Anchorage.
- Kathleen Fleming, Bradley Reid + Associates - HUD Homes &
Alaska Vacation Planner. - Beth Heuer - Alaska Legal Services, and a great gardner.
- Peg Tileston and Pauline Utter (RIP) - InformAlaska, Inc. Way more than a customer, Pauline, you are often in our thoughts.
- Daniel Casey - Princess Tours.
- Paul Todd - Anchorage Convention & Visitors Bureau.
- Dawn Scott - Scott's Office Services - and a good neighbor and co-host of our going away party.
- Claire Steffens, Attorney - another good neighbor. Recently did a stint in Antarctica!
- Harry Lee (RIP) and sons Michael and Mark - H4M - good man, good engineer, greatly missed.
- Jim Cocallas - publisher of CBG USA, Inc.
- Trustees for Alaska - Environmental Protection
- Bering Strait School District - Unalakleet -we flew there to train teachers in the use of Hayes modems for their Apple computers
- Assistive Technologies of Alaska - doing the good work with our computers
- William & Allegra Barnes (RIP) - greatly missed on this planet
- Food Brokers / Magadan Police Department (to Russia with Love)
- Thor Brandt-Erichsen (RIP) - Artist
- christopher arend - photographer
- Pilots and Crew of Flying Tigers & British Airlines—enlarged our world when they dropped by our store ...
- Surreal Studios, Kurt Riemann - our last and best programming job! The place to go for studio and A/V expertise.
- and many others too numerous to place here.
Favorite Local Vendors
- Tony Knowles and Dave Rose (RIP) - landlords for our first office and a customer for their nearby restaurant - The Downtown Deli. We in turn were often customers at the Deli, which, sadly, has closed after a long and delicious run.
- Color Art Printing, Steve Hafling (RIP) - landlord at our second location and customer.
- Richard D. Thaler - legal advice
- James Ottinger - legal advice and customer
- Stuart S. Hunsaker, Hunsaker & Brudie Inc. - accounting support
- Robert J. Bellott Insurance Agency (and Barbara) - our agent and customer
- Adrian Dube - micro photography
- Ludwig Laab - photographer and friend (now shooting in Hawaii)
- Josef Princiotta - artist - sculpture and more ...
- Shimek's - Provided audio for the store and also a good customer
- Kumagoro - Sorry to say, closed now, we loved the teriyaki salmon and steak
- Stewart's Photo - Where else a camera store that also had a jade mine?
Favorite Manufacturer
- Epson America - For over 14 years Epson backed up their product much better than other vendors we worked with. You can still download info from their web site for machines off the market for over a decade. Bravo! In my studio in Manchester I am now the proud owner of an Epson V750 Pro scanner and a Stylus Photo R3000 printer--and lusting for one of their bigger Pro printers! These days we're more into digital photography than general IT.
