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There are some things that I don't
remember, either because I was too young
or because I didn't pay attention to every story my pa came home with...so I
am fortunate to have been contacted by Jerry's coworkers who are filling in
those gaps by sending me their recounts...
From Glen Bibbins:
As you know better
than anybody else, Jerry's consistent, unbroken humanitarian approach to life
was his stamp on the world. Anyone who needed a hand, he
was there.
I stumbled across your
site and got the most pleasant surprise. Of course, my
primary interest is your story about your father, but the other stuff is really
good
too. I hope you don't mind if I tell you that he was my hero too and my role
model. One of a kind.
I am looking forward to some Chrysler stories about your dad; I am sure that you
have many. You know that he was instrumental in Chrysler's acquisition of one
of the first computers in Michigan. You probably also know that when he went to
his management to request funds for this purpose, they reminded him that he
could only spend $5,000. I am sure that it took Jerry about a nanosecond to find
a solution. The computer came in and the pioneering work began. After several
months, the people in accounting wondered if Jerry was buying a new computer
every month, since there was a $5,000 charge each month. Jerry had to admit
that there was only one computer; it was on a lease. Maybe one of the first
computer leases.
In the early days, development was slow because this was prior to that old
workhorse, FORTRAN. Engineers would come to Jerry with ideas or
specifications for programs that had to be written in assembly language
by his small staff.
Occasionally, Jerry would have to tell the engineer that he couldn't assign
people to work on the program because it was the dumbest thing he had ever
heard of.
That didn't stop many of them from coming back.
I will check in on your site from time to time because it is great. There are
several Growth Courses that look interesting. I am sure that my wife will
want me to
enroll in some of them...
From Jim Stimac:
If I may, I would like to contribute some
recollections/anecdotes about your
father that you may find interesting and perhaps useful. I'll start with
this
story which you may already be familiar with. I think it's a good example
of
how Jerry could get things done for people even if there were obstacles to
overcome.
Years ago one of his workers suffered a broken leg (or ankle) while skiing;
the accident resulted in her wearing a cast and being on crutches for six to
eight weeks. To facilitate her access to the building in which they
worked,
Jerry went to see about getting her a special parking place close to the
building's entrance. The person responsible for approving such requests,
(Nick Baer, by
name), didn't think much of the idea. "If I do it for her, I'll have
all kinds of
other people asking for special parking privileges," he said. Jerry replied, "I
don't think people will be breaking their leg just to get better parking
places."
But, Nick Baer was adamant. "No, I can't do it," he said. "I can't be
making
exceptions like that."
Whereupon Jerry went to the person in charge of the building in which he
worked.
"One of my people is going to be on crutches for a while and needs a
close parking spot. Where can she park that's close to the door?"
"Oh, you have to see Nick Baer for
approval about that," he was told.
"I already saw him," Jerry replied.
"Well, in that case," he was told, "have her park in one of the spots in
the aisle
near the back door. That should be satisfactory."
"That will be fine, thanks a lot," Jerry
answered, and departed.
Problem solved to everyone's satisfaction.
Glen Bibbins adds:
I am glad to see this story,
typical of Jerry's people skills to get things done.
I will remind y'all that with a parking lot for about 8000 employees at
Engineering
at that time, the employee's normal parking place could easily be 1/4 mile or
more from the office. Since it was a skiing accident, "how much fun it is to
ride..."
on crutches through a big snow drifted or ice covered parking lot.
Kirsten,
I was a math major but I never considered myself a real mathematician.
Probably no one else did either. I started as a programmer, then
supervisor
and manager.
Your Pa was very special in so many ways. I was not anywhere near his
league in math. In 1967, we were trying to find some mathematics that
would
apply to making a computer surface that would approximate a free form
surface such as the kind that you find on the outer surfaces of all cars.
Your Pa realized that perhaps Chebyshev polynomials would work. It did.
We made a program that became used for all free form computer surfaces for
about
the next thirty years. Every body part for Chrysler vehicles came through
that program. The output of that program drove a numerically controlled
milling machine (just xyz coordinates) that carved out the die and then the dies
are used to stamp out the panels.
With some engineering programs, it might be hard to realize that the
calculations were wrong. But when you are making a car surface (and you
know that they must be extremely accurate) if you goof, it is there for the
world
to see. You make a gouge where it is supposed to be a blip, for
example.
Once, someone said that the computer didn't see the surface
properly.
Your Pa said, "Of course the computer didn't see it, it is
very dark inside
that computer."
Glen
Jim Stimac:
(Another Jerry Rogoff /
Chrysler anecdote)
In the late 1950’s, the
General Office staff came to have a newer
/ bigger /
faster / more powerful
computer than that used by the Engineering Computer
group which was headed
by Jerry. To take advantage of
this more powerful
computer the Engineering group
began running some of its
programs on the
General Office computer. This required
a trip on foot from
the Engineering
location to the G/O location which was approx. 1/4
mile away. At that
time,
most programs and their data were entered into the computer
via punched
cards, generally referred to as IBM cards, and these cards were transported
back and forth from
site to site in one or more bulky boxes of cards. The
shortest path for this journey
involved going from the Engineering complex,
through the Manufacturing complex
and finally into the G/O complex and
there were several gates, each manned
by security guards,
which had to be
gone through. Protocol called for a person to
have a gate pass for
the person
and the cards which was to be shown at each gate in order
to pass through.
Naturally, this got to be a nuisance. So to expedite matters, Jerry
would just
say “payroll” to
the guards and wave the pass. Those magic words certainly
did the trick.
You may want to edit this down
in size a little. Brevity is not my strong point.
Glen Bibbins:
On Boxing...
Here is a subject that I'm sure that you know about. Jerry followed
boxing
and sometimes when a big fight was coming up, the "fans" would offer
up
their predictions. One day Jerry pointed out that there was a pretty good way
to pick a winner. He said, "Just bet on the guy I pick to lose." Since
he knew
more about boxing than just about anyone else in the office, it was an ironical
situation that most of the time he picked the wrong guy.
Back to Chrysler...
In about 1964, the original IBM
650 became obsolete, so Mr. Rogoff started
the process to replace it with greater price/performance. You probably have
heard the truism that "no one ever got fired by buying IBM."
Well, Jerry
wanted the best computer for the price, so we sent representative programs
to several prospective vendors and asked them
to compile and execute them
and report back to us on the results. If IBM didn't make the cut, tough
situation
for them. FYI, Honeywell (you probably won't use brand names if
you put any
of this on your web site) came back with the best compile and execute
times.
But after installation, there was a glitch. The assembly process
took a great
deal of time, and Honeywell had inadvertently (of course)
neglected to inform
us of that. Jerry pointed out this problem and the
vendor assured us that it
would be fixed very quickly. He motivated them to
fix it as fast as they could,
because he made sure that they didn't get paid
any lease money until the
problem was resolved.
Bill
Leopold:
Click
Here
for Word Document
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