John “Jack” Storlie’s eyes light up and his voice gets gradually more intense when he talks about computers.

Now 80, Storlie has the same passion he did about 40 years ago when he tirelessly worked to start what is now Wisconsin’s second-oldest computer science department at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.

Storlie started at UW-L in 1959 as an associate professor of chemistry. He taught the first computer science class in 1968 and retired in 1987 as the director of what is now Information Technology at UW-L. He directed the university’s data processing center and was chairman of the computer science department.

Storlie intuitively saw a need for computers both administratively and academically at UW-L, particularly after taking a six-credit course in computer science at the University of Southwestern Louisiana in the summer of 1965 as part of a National Science Foundation grant.

He returned to advocate to UW-L faculty and administration the need for computers.

“The vision I had is that computer use was global,” said Storlie.

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By KJ LANG
La Crosse Tribune
(608) 791-8226
klang@lacrossetribune.com