Ward Leon Christensen (October 23, 1945 – October 11, 2024) was an American computer scientist who was the inventor of the XMODEM file transfer protocol and a co-founder of the CBBS bulletin board, the first bulletin board system (BBS) ever brought online.[1][2][3][4]
Ward Christensen | |
|---|---|
 Christensen and the First BBS, 2002 | |
| Born | Ward Leon Christensen October 23, 1945 West Bend, Wisconsin, U.S. |
| Died | October 11, 2024 (aged 78) |
| Alma mater | Milton College (BA) |
| Occupation | Computer scientist |
| Known for | First bulletin board system (BBS) XMODEM Protocol |
Early life
editWard Leon Christensen was born on October 23, 1945, in West Bend, Wisconsin, to Florence (née Hohmann) and Roy Christensen. His father was a safety director at West Bend Company and his mother sold World Book encyclopedias. Christensen also had a brother, Donald Christensen.[5][6]
Christensen attended West Bend High School. In his senior year of high school in 1963, he created a computer that won first place in a science fair.[7] After graduating high school, Christensen attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison before transferring to Milton College.[5][2] He graduated from Milton College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and chemistry in 1968.[2]
Career
editChristensen, along with collaborator Randy Suess,[8] members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists' Exchange (CACHE), started development during a blizzard in Chicago, Illinois, and officially established CBBS four weeks later, on February 16, 1978. CACHE members frequently shared programs and had long been discussing some form of file transfer, and the two used the downtime during the blizzard to implement it.[9][10][11] In 1968, Christensen was hired by IBM as a systems engineer in the sales office.[2][12][13][5] Christensen would work for IBM until his retirement in 2012.[5] His last position with IBM was a field technical sales specialist.[12]
Christensen was noted for building software tools for his needs. He wrote a cassette-based operating system before floppy disks and hard disks were common.[citation needed] When he lost track of the source code for some programs, he wrote ReSource, an iterative disassembler for the Intel 8080, to help him regenerate the source code.[14][15] In 1977, he wrote XMODEM, a protocol to send computer files over phone lines.[5] Jerry Pournelle wrote in 1983 of a collection of CP/M public-domain software that "probably 50 percent of the really good programs were written by Ward Christensen, a public benefactor."[16] In May 2005, Christensen and Suess were both featured in BBS: The Documentary.[17] Christensen taught soldering techniques, until his death, through Build-a-Blinkie, a non-profit organization that hosts "learn-to-solder" events in the Great Lakes area.[12]
Personal life
editChristensen lived in Dolton, Illinois when he invented XMODEM in 1977 and co-invented CBBS in 1978.[2][5] Christensen died from a heart attack at his home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, on October 11, 2024 at the age of 78. At the time of his death, he was in a relationship with Debra Adamson. He also left behind his brother, Donald, and his nieces, Carin and Dana Christensen.[5][4]
Awards
editChristensen received two 1992 Dvorak Awards for Excellence in Telecommunications, one with Randy Suess for developing the first BBS, and a lifetime achievement award "for outstanding contributions to PC telecommunications."[18] In 1993, he received the Pioneer Award from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[19]
References
edit- ^ "U.S., Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1". Ancestry.com. Retrieved October 20, 2024.
Ward L Christensen was born on October 23, 1945....
- ^ a b c d e re: R/1ST BBS QUESTIONS (Msg 46394) from Ward Christensen to Steve Culver, July 31, 1993.
- ^ Zelchenko, Peter (October 30, 1998). "Jack Rickard, editor of Boardwatch magazine, saw it coming". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
- ^ a b Edwards, Benji (October 14, 2024). "Ward Christensen, BBS inventor and architect of our online age, dies at age 78". Ars Technica. New York: Condé Nast. Retrieved October 14, 2024.
- ^ a b c d e f g Metz, Cade (October 21, 2024). "Ward Christensen, Early Visionary of Social Media, Dies at 78". The New York Times. Retrieved October 21, 2024.
- ^ "1950 United States Federal Census". Ancestry.com. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
- ^ "The 1963 Bend Yearbook". classmates. West Bend, Wisconsin: The Senior Class of West Bend High School. 1963. pp. 22, 36. Retrieved October 23, 2024.
- ^ Metz, Cade (December 20, 2019). "Randy Suess, Computer Bulletin Board Inventor, Dies at 74". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 3, 2021.
- ^ Barry, Rey. "The Origin of Computer Bulletin Boards". Freeware Hall of Fame.
- ^ Goodwins, Rupert. "Online communities turn twenty-five".
- ^ "Ward Christensen". Smart Computing Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on June 7, 2011.
- ^ a b c "Master Blinkie Techs". Build-a-Blinkie. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved October 18, 2024.
- ^ Panzaris, Georgios (2008). Machines and Romances: The Technical and Narrative Construction of Networked Computing as a General-purpose Platform, 1960-1995. United States: Stanford University. p. 172.
- ^ Bearden, James C., Jr. (November 29, 1982). "V-COM, a disassembler for Z80 and 8080 systems". InfoWorld. p. 73. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "CompuView Products responds to V-COM review". InfoWorld. November 29, 1982. p. 74. Retrieved October 22, 2024.
- ^ Pournelle, Jerry (July 1983). "Interstellar Drives, Osborne Accessories, DEDICATE/32, and Death Valley". BYTE. p. 323. Retrieved August 28, 2016.
- ^ "BBS: TheDocumentary". BBS: The Documentary. Retrieved September 15, 2022.
- ^ "Dvorak Awards for Excellence in Telecommunications". citivu. Archived from the original on March 6, 2016.
- ^ "Second Annual EFF Pioneer Awards". Electronic Frontier Foundation.