LA JUNTA – From an IBM 1620 that took up most of the second floor of Macdonald Hall, to hand-held palm pilots, Ken Goodwin has seen some amazing changes in technology during his 32 years at Otero Junior College. “And we’ve only seen the beginning of the advances that technology will make. In 10 years we’ll look back at today’s technology and think of it as still in the dark ages,” he predicts.
January marked the first full month that Ken Goodwin could say he was really retired. Goodwin officially retired as Director of Computer Services 18 months ago, but continued to work an extended contract to finish up some projects before calling it quits this past December. “I wanted to retire while I was still young enough to enjoy my retirement. I knew the Computer Center at OJC was operating well and had a great replacement for me in Mark Allen, so it seemed like the timing was right,” said Goodwin.
Goodwin looks back at his 32 years with Otero Junior College with fond memories. “I can’t remember a single day that I got up and didn’t want to go to work,” he said to an audience of OJC faculty and staff recently. “OJC is a unique college in the people we have, the facilities we enjoy and our progressive philosophy toward technology. I have had the pleasure of working with five presidents at Otero Junior College during my career. They each had different management styles and interests, but each one allowed me to continue taking OJC to the next level of technology without the bureaucracy that stifles many other colleges.”
According to Jim Rizzuto, president of Otero Junior College, OJC’s progressiveness in the technology field can be largely attributed to Ken Goodwin. “Since Ken started at OJC as a computer operator in 1971, he has been a major player in the tremendous technology advances that the college has made. When you look at the fact that as recently as 10 years ago, we operated our computer system independently from the Colorado Community College System, and there were only three personal computers on campus — then see where we are today, you realize what great strides this campus has made because of people like Ken Goodwin,” said Rizzuto.
Goodwin was born and raised in the Arkansas Valley. He graduated from Otero Junior College with an associate of applied science degree in business data processing. He recalls working on the original IBM 1620, and the IBM 407 accounting machine, along with the sorters, collators and wiring boards. “I was a student at OJC shortly after McBride Hall was first built. I remember them taking the IBM 1620 out of a window at Macdonald Hall and moving it over to McBride. The computer took up most all of McBride Room 122, which is now a computer lab that has over 30 computers in it. The IBM 1620 ran off a 440 volt electric line, while today’s computers purr along on 110 volts.”
Goodwin completed his bachelor’s degree at Southern Colorado State College in Pueblo, (now the University of Southern Colorado). He returned to OJC as a computer operator in 1971. As the computer center began to grow, workstudy students were added to the department with Goodwin becoming their supervisor. While in this position, Goodwin worked under both Bill Piquette and his brother, Keith Goodwin. Piquette later moved on to become the business manager at OJC and Keith Goodwin moved to Lamar Community College to manage their computer center. In 1979 Ken Goodwin became the third director of computer services at OJC, a position he would hold for the next 22 years.
As Goodwin looks back over his career, he remembers some major milestone along the way. “When I took over as director of computer services, we had replaced the IBM 1620 with a Digital Equipment Corporation PDP 11/34 computer server that was capable of running multiple jobs at the same time. Our department wrote the first on-line student records program that the college used, we ran our payroll through this server and paid all the bills through it. It was about this same time that we accomplished our first big networking project, by tying Lamar Community College into our system so that we could process jobs together. In 1980 we decided to upgrade the PDP 11/34 server with a PDP 11/44 that would run faster. This experience became our first introduction to ‘freezing’. The new PDP server would freeze in the middle of a job with no warning. After many visits to the campus, the supplier’s technical people could not figure out why the server would freeze, so they offered to replace their server with a VAX server. In order to make the conversion to the VAX, all of our data had to be converted to a new computer language. The conversion process was going to take a full year to complete, so in the meantime, I had to figure out a way to make the old system work. Just like a mechanic, I pieced and parted equipment from the original PDP 11/34 server. I added a faster central processing unit and was finally able to create a server that would not freeze up. I had it patched together well enough to get us through that year of conversion.”
Throughout the 1980s and until the mid-1990s, OJC’s Computer Center continued to upgrade the campus computer system with newer, faster and more efficient servers, networks and eventually the personal computer. While the other community colleges in the 13-member Colorado Community College System merged their computer centers into the system office in Denver, OJC continued to maintain all their own computer support and service. “The reason we stood alone for so long, was because our system was really superior to the state’s system,” explained Goodwin. “When the state system finally upgraded to our level, the decision was made in 1995 to merge OJC’s Computer Center with the state system. As part of the agreement, OJC was allowed to keep all the current support staff for the center on campus and for the center to have control of all programs on campus. Because we had so much experience in networking, our staff became the networking specialists for the whole state system. Instead of just working on our campus, the OJC staff now headed up networking projects in all 13 Colorado community colleges. The merge into the state system created some changes in the way we operated; however, many of our procedures and features were adopted by the state.”
As another major milestone for the OJC Computer Center was crossed, with the merge into the state system, Goodwin found himself on the forefront of what was to become the biggest challenge of his career. In 1998, the Colorado Legislature established the Connect Colorado project to develop technology in rural Colorado by networking schools and all non-profit organizations outside of government agencies. As a member of the project, Goodwin, representing Otero Junior College, was in on the planning stages for southeastern Colorado. “My initial role was only as support staff for this area. However, shortly into the planning process, the project coordinator withdrew to take another job. It looked like the whole project was going to be dead in the water. I knew this was an opportunity that southeast Colorado could not let slip by, so I agreed to step in as project manager,” explained Goodwin. The concept of networking an entire region of the state may have seemed overwhelming to many, but for Goodwin, he viewed the logistics of the project the same as if he was networking a college campus. “Instead of running cable to network buildings that were several hundred yards apart, we would be networking towns together that were several hundred miles apart.”
Joining the Connect Colorado project was Southeast Colorado Power Association (SECPA), based in La Junta. “Southeast Colorado Power was interested in the project because they wanted to connect all their regional offices, and as a major provider of electricity, they saw a need to promote economic development in southeast Colorado,” said Goodwin. Over the next two years, Otero Junior College and SECPA ran over 680 miles of 36-strand fiber optic cable to schools, hospitals and other non-governmental, non-profit agencies that covered 13,500 square miles in southeastern Colorado. The schools and non-profit agencies were then networked and connected to high speed Internet. Of the total 36 strands of fiber in each cable, OJC, the schools and non-profit agencies used 12 strands with SECPA keeping 24 strands. When the Bean Pole Project was developed a couple of years later in 2000, to connect the governmental agencies and county governments in six southeastern Colorado counties, that project utilized some of the remaining 24 strands in the fiber that belonged to SECPA . According to Goodwin, there are still unused fiber strands in the cable that can be utilized for future growth in the area.
Today, the OJC Computer Center provides network services for the Internet for the Arkansas Valley Network Association, (AVNA) a group made up of all the schools and agencies who were a part of the Connect Colorado project, as well as the Beanpole participants. “I have had calls from groups from all across the nation, asking me how we managed to accomplish such a major project, with so much cooperation and in record time. To answer that, I give the credit to the fact that OJC and SECPA were not hampered by a lot of red-tape, in that we were given the freedom to get the job done,” said Goodwin.
As someone who can look back on a highly successful and rewarding career, Goodwin was asked what advice he would give to students just starting out in a career. Goodwin emphasized the need for hands-on experience. “I would encourage students to find something they enjoy doing, and then learn everything they can about that field, not only from a book, but by getting hands-on experiences. Many of the workstudy students that have worked at the OJC Computer Center have gone on to great careers all over the nation, simply because they had practical experience. Some may not have had the top grades, but they knew what they were doing when it came to job skills. I would also advise students to specialize. There are lots of openings for generalists, but when you specialize you become an invaluable asset to your organization.”
As they look toward the future, Goodwin and his wife Cindy, look forward to many new adventures that retirement may bring. “We plan to follow the activities of our son Caleb, a junior at Swink High School, and enjoy our older son Aaron, his wife Denise and granddaughter, Linsey. And who knows, I might even go fishing,” said Goodwin with a twinkle in his eye.
