Ken Groff

          Ken Groff has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania, California, PA.  https://www.calu.edu     He began his career life in the early 1980's in the printing and publishing industry before the days of personal computers.  "We used paper punch cards and magnetic reel-to-reel tape for memory storage of text articles.  Our computers were large mainframes the size of refrigerators connected to dumb terminals that were really just a keyboard and tiny black & white screen.  These mainframe computers struggled to calulate even simple formulas like baseball batting averages.  Photos were added to articles and books late in the process.  We used screens and filters to separate the colors in photographs for 4 press plates.  Sometimes we would group all of the photographs into a center signature section of a book to consolidate the color printing and save money.  We had film strip photos of fonts to set type of articles onto photo paper that was glued to paste-up boards with rubber cement and wax!"  Soon after graduation, typesetting and pre-press photo-offset printing gave way to word processing, digital photography replaced film process cameras, and the internet and networks replaced newspapers and books.  "Computers invaded my work.  That work went away, and all that remained of my former career was the computer and networking skills that had invaded.  Apple released it first "Desktop Publisher" with a tiny 7" screen in 1985.  Our university bought one from Apple for $7000.  It competed with our $70,000 digital photo typesetter that our graphics department bought in 1981 from AM Multigraphics.  AM went bankrupt in 1988.  I thrived with these new skills and applied them to marketing online in the early 1990's.  Then later in the late 1990's, I moved to Colorado and became involved in building the rural networks that transitioned wireless 2-way radio and paging to today's cellular smart phones tower networks supplemented by rural broadband deployments.  I loved the work; however, grew weary of climbing towers in sub zero climate.

          To better enjoy my new home in rural Colorado, I accepted a position as the District Technology Coordinator at the school district closest to my hunting cabin.  I now live in my hunting cabin and commute to a wonderful small town everyday to help maintain, upgrade, and keep our schools connected.  I also enjoy teaching our staff and students about the latest advances in technology."