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Stephen Leon By Hank Kee [March 31, 2008] I was saddened to learn that Stephen Leon, after a month in the hospital, passed away on New Year’s Day. He was an active participant in the Amateur Computer Group of New Jersey, the New York Amateur Computer Club and the Trenton Computer Festival. A personal friend of mine, Steve was one of the unsung heroes in the evolution of shareware and freeware programs for the home computer system.
I met Steve about thirty years ago. Members of the Amateur Group of New Jersey and the New York Amateur Computer Club in 1978 had collaborated on creating a library to distribute programs in the public domain for the CP/M operating system. We felt that a forum was needed to enable authors to showcase their work. This is akin to musicians of today publishing their own work on the World Wide Web when they cannot get noticed by any of the major record labels. We called it SIG/M (Special Interest Group for Microcomputers). I took on the responsibility of compiling and editing submitted programs. Steve had the task of verifying the completeness (quality assurance) of each volume. (A volume then was on a 5.25 inch floppy with a maximum capacity of 1.2 Mb.) In 1982, we created a similar library for the IBM-based personal computer. We called it PC/Blue. I undertook the editing of the PC/Blue library and Steve took over the editing of SIG/M. The SIG/M library is comprised mostly of utilities, and communications programs. PC/Blue evolved into the distribution of freeware and shareware programs. Many programs that are commercially sold today had their roots in freeware. Some programs continue to be available in a “lite” version for free use. The work was all done on a voluntary basis. The combined libraries totaled almost 800 volumes. There were many times I just wanted to drop the whole thing but Steve kept pushing that it be continued. The concept behind these libraries was recognized in the first annual awards for Technical Achievement by PC Magazine. The SIG/M library ran for about 10 years and the PC/Blue library finally gave way to the World Wide Web in the mid 1990’s. In the 1980’s, both Steve and I worked in lower Broadway in Manhattan. We met two to three times a week for lunch. A frequent eatery for lunch was the Roy Rogers fast food restaurant. One of the puzzles he was never able to solve was that he almost always had a salad for lunch to hold his weight down, unsuccessfully; whereas I, who chomped away on a hamburger complete with all the condiments from the fix it bar, never had a weight problem. We had many common interests. Steve was educated at Columbia University to be a lawyer. But I suspect he was really a wannabe computer programmer. He was self taught to program in Clipper. If computer studies were available when he went to college, I am sure he would have enjoyed working in this field. For many years he operated the Cliffside Bulletin Board System. He funded this operation entirely out of personal funds. Six computers each equipped with a modem were connected together on a local area network. This predated the advent of the World Wide Web. Although he started late in life, Steve’s pride and joy was his family. His son Jerry was a constant source of joy for him and his wife Stella. They moved to Mexico in the 1990’s to be with Stella’s relatives. Though separated by many miles and a national border, we stayed in touch. I spoke to him from time to time via Skype. I am fortunate to have had a good friend like Steve. His unselfishness and energy is remembered and will continue to live with his family and friends. |
