A Tribute to Larry
Gindler: His Heart Never Quits
Bob Jensen at Trinity
University
The Director of the Trinity University Computing Center (TUCC), Larry Gindler, will be on disability leave for at least six months. He will be in the hospital many weeks fighting for his life. Inside this giant hulk of a man, beneath the always stubborn and sometimes grumbling exterior, lies a heart of gold. It's a heart that never quits.
I arrived on the Trinity campus in 1982. The period from 1982 to 1990 is known as the sunshine era for TUCC. Bob Jensen did all of his computing on a mainframe computer, and he could not add "Things" since the mainframe was not exclusively his computer. A dark cloud descended on TUCC the day Bob Jensen returned from the CompuAdd Computer Store with his first desktop computer. TUCC had two systems technicians in those days --- Mr. DOS (Larry Gindler) and Mr. Apple (Steve Curry). The luckiest day in Steve's life is the day that Bob Jensen opted for a DOS machine instead of an Apple II.
Over the past decade there have been at least 10 "Things" from hell that Bob Jensen needed help installing. One example took place about 10 years ago when Gerald Pitts and I were the first two faculty members who wanted multimedia PCs. You could not buy a multimedia PC in those days. Gerald and I bought multimedia components and software manufactured in a lunatic asylum. The only difference between Gerald and me was that Gerald knew enough about computer hardware and DOS to install, with great difficulty, his own gadgets. I needed Larry Gindler. Another time was when, without consulting anybody, I spent $8,500 for a Phillips 521 CD-ROM burner that came bundled with Topix software developed by Batman's Joker. And the very worst of my "Things" was the Asymetrix Multimedia Toolbook software that won the first Hall of Fame Virus Oscar. And there were my copies of HyperGraphics, HotMetal Pro, and the other nominees for that award.
The following scene was enacted over and over again on the Trinity Campus. It begins with Bob Jensen arriving on the first floor of Hallsell. On the third floor, Larry Gindler receives a phone warning that Jensen's in the building and he's carrying a new "Thing." Larry immediately locks his office door and pretends he's not at home. But Bob Jensen waits patiently outside the door. Jensen knows Larry's coffee can only hold so much. Eventually Larry has to emerge to go to the bathroom.
Inside his office, Larry at long last digs into the Thing's box and scans the manual. "How many times to I have to tell you this Bob! Consult with me before you buy anything," Larry would repeat over and over again. "This 'Thing' wasn't made for your computer. Send it back." Then he would launch into a 40-minute lecture as to why the "Thing" just would not work with my machine.
But early on I learned a thing or two about the stubborn nature of Larry Gindler. He never wants to give up. Rather than send my new "Thing" back for a refund, I would put it on the shelf an wait for the inevitable phone call from Larry. Sometimes it might be only two days. It may even go on for 10 days, but eventually Larry would call and say, "If you've still got that 'Thing,' I've got an idea. Can I come over to your office at 2:00 p.m.?"
By 3:00 p.m., my desk would be strewn with pieces from my computer, and Larry would be on the phone with technical support lunatics from the asylum. About six in the evening, he would face the fact that his idea didn't work, and then he'd spend the next two hours into the night putting my computer back into working order. In a few days, he'd call once again to say that he had another idea. And we would replay the same scene over and over again until that Eureka-Day when the "Thing" finally worked in my computer. I had multimedia before most professors, and I recorded 93 multimedia CD-ROMs before anyone else on campus even thought about making CDs. The reason my "Things" eventually worked was that Larry Gindler just never would quit when confronted with most any "Thing."
One of the most worrisome times of my life was when I learned that Larry had been promoted to Director of TUCC. Administrators are relatively easy to come by, but finding a replacement technician with Larry's programming and system skills is like panning for gold on San Antonio's Riverwalk. Fortunately for me, Larry just cannot refuse to continue to help out at the micro-level with your new "Things" even if he's now TUCC's macro-boss. On occasion, I've told Larry that the campus network needs a new "Thing." For the next hour he'd lecture me on how we don't need that "Thing." But in the course of a few months or maybe a year, that "Thing" quietly got added to the network. One of those "Things" is our new Blackboard server.
Unlike us unaccountable professors, staff members like Larry have to account for their vacation days. They only get a set number of days vacation each year. If I had Larry Gindler's stressful job, I'd probably schedule each vacation day for sleep. But Larry devotes a large chunk of his precious vacation time to the Boy Scouts of America. Larry and his wife have no children, but they devote as much of their free time as possible helping other children --- it's that caring heart of gold thing.
I hope that you will join me in a prayer for the full recovery of our prized Larry Gindler. He will be in the hospital many weeks fighting for his life. Inside this giant hulk of a man, beneath the always stubborn and sometimes grumbling exterior, lies a heart of gold. Larry's heart never quits. In a few months time I anticipate a phone call saying "I've got this idea that might work."
Larry's website is at http://www.trinity.edu/lgindler/. You can send him cards at his home.
"Today I Can" --- http://members.tripod.com/OceanSerenity/todayican.html