Hello all,
I was bidding on a Percom S-100 cassette interface on a nameless auction
site :-), and I was contacted by someone who wanted to know what my interest
in the board was. I replied, and as it turns out, the "someone" was the
daughter of Percom's founder!
She sent me the message below, detailing some of the history of Percom.
Sadly, she has nothing left from the Percom line, and has made a request at
the bottom of her message.
I have used her name and email with permission. Please contact her directly
if you can be of assistance...
Rich B.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Margo " <robolady_at_hotmail.com>
To: <r_beaudry_at_hotmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 04:15 PM
Subject: Re: percom board
>
> Percom was an upstart computer peripherals company, with a brilliant mind
behind it. In the right place at the right time. On the cutting edge of
the computer hobbiest market of the 1970's. Before the internet, before
there was a computer in almost every home and every classroom in America,
there were the hobbiest. Garage engineers
> Making computer systems from components gathered from here and there. My
Dad was one of those engineers,
> His name was Harold Mauch and he founded a company known as Percom Data
Corporation.
>
> Percom started in the backroom of our 3 bedroom house in Texas. Dad got
tired of working for others and the partnership he had started with 3
buddies wasn't working out. So one day, literally, he decided to break free
and market his own ideas himself. His idea was a cassette interface for the
hobbiest computer. This was in about 1976. He took out a small ad in Byte
magazine and went to work. I remember helping him build PC boards for 50
cents each when I was 12 years old. After awhile the third bedroom wasn't
enough space for him so he got a semi large portable building and put it in
our backyard. It wasn't long before he had to hire someone to help him and
things were going well. In the summer of 1977 My Mother quit her job with
Xerox and went to work with my Dad. They were the ideal partnership. He
was the brains behind the products, and she was an organizational genius.
It wasn't long before they had 3 employees and then a few more. They were
growing out of the first building they had rented and needed a new place.
They found the perfect shop/office just down the street and moved in. Soon
they had 50 employees, engineers, assemblers, office workers etc.
Everything a real company has. I remember him telling a story once about
how he had walked into the production area one day and it was just humming
with activity, this was his dream and he had succeeded.
>
> The people who worked for Percom in the 1970's were special. They were a
family and parties and picnic's were the norm. When I turned 13 they all
through me a surprise party. I would hang around in the summers, do some
work but mostly bother the employees. Sometimes I would stuff PC boards
and clip wires, whatever there was for a 13 year old to do. I really
enjoyed the people and the atmosphere. I think everyone who worked there at
the time really enjoyed their jobs.
>
> Soon there were 100 or more people there and they were quickly busting out
at the seems. As with any company as it gets larger, there was dissention
among the ranks. Engineers were unhappy because they didn't get all the
credit for new products, Some took ideas and started their own companies.
Some just wanted to break out on their own and do what Dad had done, and be
their own boss. But things were changing. New products were being
developed and sales were going up. The double density adapter for floppy
drives were booming, we no longer sold the old cassette interface product
and we were onto bigger and better things- Floppy disk drives.
>
> I can't tell you the ins and outs of the technical side of the business,
for I was just an observer throughout this whole process, but I can tell you
business was good. It was at about this time that they made the decision to
get a much larger office space. This was the beginning of the end for
Percom. They got a huge space and moved in 1981. Because of the new space
Percom needed sales desperately. Now the sales were pretty much eaten up by
the lease on the building and the salaries of the employees.
> Dad needed to do something, so he and mom decided to bring in some
investors. The investors came in with their money and their entourage. We
began hiring big money executives, sales execs, marketing execs, engineers
etc. all making huge salaries. Some even getting hiring bonuses just for
coming to work for us. But all of that was okay because we had the
investors money to pay them with, and they were going to bring in much more
money than they would consume, in theory.
>
> Work began on a new product, the Hard Drive. This was something new but
necessary for Percom to stay competitive. The only problem, no one could
get it to work right. So we kept selling Peripherals, Disk drives,
Doublers, etc. The new guys knew nothing about the industry, all they knew
was how to make money. They had all been pretty successful up until that
point, so they must know what they are doing, right? Everyone was working
hard to make Percom Bigger and better. All the employees and management
were working hard to make this thing work. But something was about to
happen
> No one could have predicted.
>
> In August of 1982 Dad found out he had Leukemia, by the end of the month
he was dead. As time progressed it became clear that with my Dad's loss
Percom had lost it's heart and soul. New products would continue but
nothing could keep up with the fat salaries and high rent that Percom had
committed itself to.
>
> Mom quit within a year after Dad's death and so did I. By that time I had
graduated High school and had gone to work for Percom full-time in the
accounting department. By the mid 80's Percom was gone, but not it's
products. I've recently become aware of old Percom products (some in
like-new condition) being sold at auction on E-bay. It's always nice to see
those products still being used, and I usually try and contact some of the
people buying them.
>
>I Would love to find an OLD CIS30 board or old Byte magazines from 76 or
77. Specifically one issue with a purple(or other pastel, maybe blue) cover,
with a large cassette on the cover. This was the first magazine percom ran
an ad in.
> Well for those of you using this old stuff, Good luck on your projects,
You are all made of the same stuff my Dad was made of with those Fertile
minds and love of gadgets.
>
> Margo
Received on Wed May 09 2001 - 07:49:32 BST
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