EDSIG

Buzz graduated from the State University of Iowa in 1962 with a BA degree in history and political science and a commission in the U. S. Army. He was called to active duty by the army in June 1962, and he served in the infantry for twenty years. His assignments included two-and-a-third years in Vietnam (as an advisor to Vietnamese infantry units), two years in Korea (as chief investigator for the Eighth Army Inspector General's office), and some delightful winter maneuvers in Alaska.

The army sent him to graduate school at The University of Georgia where he graduated in 1971 with an MBA degree and a major in EDP (Electronic Data Processing). Then he went to the army's Computer Systems Command for where he helped develop many of the computer systems used in the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He was the lead author of a series of test evaluations of the new tactical operations systems. Later he taught computing and mathematics at the General Staff College until he retired and started looking for a legitimate job.

Instead, he became an academic, entering a doctoral degree program at The University of Texas at Arlington, Texas in 1982, and working as a full-time instructor, part-time graduate student, and the undergraduate advisor for the business college's Department of Information Systems and Management Sciences. He FINALLY graduated with a Ph. D. degree (Information Systems) in 1989, and continued to work for the department teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in operations research, statistics, computing, and computing technology. He became the college’s Director of Information and Instructional Resources in 1996, and modernized the college's computer lab facilities while continuing to teach systems development courses.

Buzz joined the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) in 1983 (The predecessor of the AITP) and the Education Special Interest Group (EDSIG) in 1985. He became a frequent contributor, panel member, and workshop leader for the Information Systems Education Conference (ISECON). His ISECON papers included the “best paper” of the 1994 ISECON conference at Louisville, Kentucky.

He was the founding advisor of the AITP (Association of Information Technology Professionals) student chapter, the AITP of UTA from its inception in 1985 as the Data Processing Management Association (DPMA) of UTA until 2006. His student group, The AITP of UTA, was the host of the AITP national organization's fourth annual National Collegiate Conference that attracted more than 800 students to the UT Arlington campus in 1999.

He was elected secretary of the EDSIG in 1996 and helped resurrect the organization from near-death during a second term of office in 1997. In January 2000 he was elected to a two-year term as a Director of the EDSIG of the AITP, and served another two-year term as a director from 2002 to 2004. He was also an assistant paper chair of the ISECON in 2005 and 2006, and was the conference awards chairman from 1998 to 2005.

Buzz retired from the University of Texas at Arlington, Texas in 2008.