ABOUT GUY BONA

Born and raised in Berwyn, Illinois, west of Chicago. After parents divorced in 1970, raised by mother alongside sister. Graduated high school in 1976 and attended Morton College in Cicero, IL for 2 years, earning an Associate Degree in Applied Sciences in Data Processing (later changed to Computer Science).

My journey with computers began in high school when I was called to the Dean's office because their new computer system was incorrectly marking me absent despite perfect attendance. After teacher confirmation, I stayed to watch staff remove the absent codes - my first hands-on experience with computer troubleshooting!

Started as Jr. Programmer at Montgomery Ward Insurance Group in Chicago. Primarily modified existing IBM Assembler programs. Left after one year - best decision ever as I was ready for bigger challenges!

Joined Rotary International in Evanston as Post Processing Clerk and backup computer operator. Started with an IBM System 360 (constantly breaking down!). After management change in 1981, upgraded to IBM 4331 then 4361 mainframe. Promoted to Programmer (1982) then Programmer A (1986).

Survived the Great Burroughs Disaster of 1988 - a merger brought a new manager who switched to Unisys mainframe using consultants who didn't know what they were doing. Everything was messed up! Manager was fired, but we moved forward to Network Client systems.

Spent 34 years total at Rotary as Membership Data Assistant and later Data Relations Assistant.

Bought my first Adam Expansion 3 (already had ColecoVision). Started programming in SmartBasic and wrote an extensive bowling record management system as bowling league secretary. Later progressed to PC programming with QBasic and other languages.