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Show tn. 0 0a n-rRSS SOP ,.,(711 it I I V ' ' ,s:' 3 4, iit-.ati 1 -.i-r l.licf - . .... U I J G ( Modern Day Pioneers Orem's Alan and Karen Ashton were pioneers in computer development of WordPerfect. The Times concludes its series on Orem Pioneers with their story and profiles of Arthur V. Watkins, J.W. Gillman, and Evan Baugh. An Exhibit in the Orem City Center rotunda displays the stories and pictures of these and the Orem Pioneers featured in July issues of the Times. Jim Pace honored as "Employee of the Quarter" Jim Pace of the Orem Public Works Department was recently recognized at an Orem City Council meeting as the city's "Employee of the Quarter". Pace is a 25-year veteran of the Public Works Department, having worked mainly in the Water Resources Division and currently holding the position of water supply technician. His job includes forecasting the water supply, along with fulfilling additional ad-ditional duties in the supply section. sec-tion. The award recipient was credited with having good rapport rap-port with his colleagues, with other employees of the city, and with the general public. "The service Jim provides to the citizens of Orem and the employees of the water section is done quietly and unnoticed," read bibliographical information informa-tion provided with the award. "Jim forecasts bur water supply "on a yearly basis and plans each month with management to assure as-sure that supply is adequate. His knowledge of our water system, sys-tem, our water rights, and our Mayor Stella Welsh presents Orem's "Employee of the Quarter" Award to Jim Pace of the Public Works Department. ri: ; , A fl i v Carol Walker (left) accepts"Citizen of the Quarter" Award from Orem Mayor Stella Welsh. j W f Oil ii; (ici) (H i if ; (1) KM.il (to it;?A On iltl' I at: water supply is a valuable asset to the community." Pace's responsibilities have also included running a computer com-puter model of the city's water system. His solution, currently being implemented, is expected to provide better and more constant con-stant water pressure to customers. cus-tomers. Pace provides a yearly water supply manual to forecast the water supply on a monthly basis. He produces monthly reports that reflect the actual demands on the system as well. "Jim has demonstrated an exceptional level of professional and personal commitment," concluded con-cluded the nomination papers. "Jim's work goes unnoticed, but he does not expect any praise. He is just doing his job. (He) is an employee committed to excellence excel-lence and dedicated to his job and the City of Orem. Jim's excellence ex-cellence in his work can be measured in the knowledge and -""eTrpeitis'e'he has acquired, fri the " assignments he has completed, and in the dedication to the city and the citizens of Orem." If 4 bK Mm. ami Modern Orem pioneersAlan and Karen Ashton personally saw the face of business change on an international in-ternational level as the world went from using typewriters to using computers for word processing. . It was a huge change. And with Alan being one of the co-developers of best-selling WordPerfect word processing software, along with Bruce Bastian, the Ashtons were on the wave of that change. "It has been exciting, but difficult, diffi-cult, to be there," Karen said. "It's been quite a ride." in 1993, Orem-based WordPerfect Corporation employed em-ployed more than 5,000 worldwide and realized revenues of more than $700 million. In 1994, the company was acquired by Novell, Inc. Alan said the industry changed with the advent of MicroSoft, and WordPerfect officials felt it would be best to combine with Novell to go up against that aggressive marketing. mar-keting. Alan was on the board of directors of Novell from 1995-96. The company developed electronic mail and office communications products that WordPerfect had brought to the merger, but eventually even-tually sold the word processing to Corel. Karen said that WordPerfect was the first on-screen computer software version, where people could actually see what they were typing. Alan noted that as it was developed, WordPerfect was used in Asia, Europe, and South ..America. During WordPerfect's initial success, suc-cess, Karen said, she does not think she understood completely just what was happening. She re- Carol Walker named "Citizen of the Quarter" Carol Walker was honored at a recent meeting of the Orem City Council as the Walter C. Orem "Citizen of the Quarter". Walker was born and raised in Provo, Utah, and has resided in this area her entire life. She is married to Terry Walker and they are the parents of a daughter and three sons. They also have two granddaughters. Walker's community involvement invol-vement has included serving as chairperson for the Gifts and Grants Committee of the Utah Valley State College Foundation Board of Directors. She has been chairperson for the Orem Celebrates Utah's Centennial and a member of the Utah County Coun-ty Centennial Committee. Besides helping the Orem community celebrate the centennial cen-tennial anniversary of statehood for Utah, Walker has also helped the city observe its annual SummerFest celebration, serving serv-ing as chairperson for the event's committee. Walker is a member of the Utah Tennis Association Board of Directors, the ProvoOrem Chamber of Commerce, and Women in Leadership. She has been a member of the Miss Orem Scholarship Pageant Committee. Commit-tee. Background materials on Walker's accomplishments stated: "Carol's biggest accomplishments ac-complishments are her generosity and time serving the community and state. She loves our state and what (it) stands for and feels very blessed to have been able to raise her family in Orem. She is always anxious to be involved in ways to make this an even better place to live. She has volunteered many, many hours toward helping different organizations in the city." Walker was the recipient of the Arthur V. Watkins Award for Outstanding Community Service in 1996. She has been active in her church and has served as school president and president-elect of the Orem City PTA. ll&i'Qii Mtfon members traveling with Alan somewhere and seeing WordPerfect posters in the window of a store. She found there were people all over the world who knew her husband. It was, in her words, "kind of a shock". j Alan Ashton was born and raised in Salt Lake City. He attended at-tended East High School, then the University of Utah, where he earned a degree in math, magna cum laude, with an honors thesis. He earned his doctorate in 1970 in computer science. His dissertation involved connecting the electronic organ to the computer to play music mu-sic by the numbers. He made a film showing the graphing and playing of music at the same time. "It was a lot of fun," he said. .After a year as an associate research re-search professor at the University of Utah, Alan brought his organ and graphics system to Brigham Young University where he became a professor in the Computer Science Sci-ence Department in 1972. That was the year the Ashtons moved to Orem. Alan said he had worked with a number of students on text editing and word processing projects, but in 1978 he got together with Bastian, an "outstanding master's student", and the two began programming pro-gramming what was to become WordPerfect ; Karen grew up in Murray, Utah, and was "active in anything fun" at Murray High School including includ-ing yearbook staff and music groups. She earned a debate scholarship schol-arship to BYU for extemporaneous speaking. "I have been doing it ever since," she noted, with a smile. She "Crazy For Gershwin, The magic of George and Ira Gershwin received new life -when Broadway premiered the dance extravaganza "Crazy For You", a musical spun around the lively music of the Gershwin brothers. After enjoying a generous run in London and the Big Apple in the early to mid-9 0s, the musical comedy about boy meeting meet-ing girl in the Wild West has become available for regional audiences, and SCERA will present "Crazy For You" at their Shell Outdoor Theatre August 8 through 16. Tickets for the 8 p.m. show are available at the Shell, 699 South State in SCERA Park, Orem, beginning at 6:30 p.m performance nights. Admission ' is $6 for adults and $3 for children, age 3-11. "I happened onto the music, fell in love with the show, and waited for SCERA to produce it," says director Syd Riggs. "I knew it was a natural for SCERA audiences. It's a lively and joyful way to reintroduce Gershwin classics through song and dance especially dance." The SCERA production will star Britani Bateman as spunky Polly Baker, the only woman in the fictional sleepy town of Deadrock, Nevada. Britani is a BYU graduate in musical theatre, where she toured with the Young Ambassadors and played Reno Sweeney in "Anything "Any-thing Goes". Most recently, she performed at Walt Disney World as Ariel and Belle in their stage shows. The day after "Crazy For You" closing night, she leaves for Japan with her newlywed husband, hus-band, where she will perform for nine months at Tokyo Disneyland. Dis-neyland. Her counterpart and onstage on-stage love interest is BYU Music Dance Theatre major Jake Fry, who plays Bobby Child, a city banker and theatre wannabe sent to foreclose on a rundown theatre in Deadrock. Jake just finished originating the role of The Nerd" in the new Young Ambassadors show, and performed per-formed in "Hollywood Nites" at Lagoon last summer. ""Crazy For You provides a brilliant showcase for some of the area's finest dancers," says met Alan on a blind date (a good blind date, she said) after her first year at BYU. They met in August Au-gust and married in March, and in 1968 they began their family. The Ashtons had 11 children in 16 years no small feat. The family went through difficult times when Alan was "being pulled in so many directions." direc-tions." There were ten years of "extreme stress" during the time WordPerfect Alan and the business were being developed. devel-oped. Karen was holding down the fort at home while her husband was gone, sometimes for weeks at a time. Alan's daily schedule was grueling as well. He would typically work until un-til 1 in the morning, then be up and going again at 5 a.m. But he made the time to be there when Karen especially needed him at the dinner din-ner hour helping the children to get slowed down and settled for the night. The Ashtons credit their Orem community with helping them get through. "This is such a good place for a family to be raised," Karen said. They have especially appreciated being accepted as individuals in their neighborhood. One year, Karea attended a storytelling festival in Jonesboro, You" highlights dance at SCERA Shell Norm Nielsen, SCifiKA president presi-dent "And we have the talent to do the spirited choreography justice. Plus, the musical has hilarious dialogue and is crammed with absolutely upbeat up-beat music and charming love songs. Some standards include 'Someone to Watch Over Me', Shall We Dance', 'Embraceable You', Tve Got Rhythm', They Can't Take That Away From Me, and 'Slap that Bass'." The play's writer, Ken Lud-wig, Lud-wig, took the Gershwin brothers' music and wrote a story that embraces both city and country life, snobs and hicks and saloons and skyscrapers. The story, however, is little more than a thread around which to show off pure entertainment and a blissful bliss-ful finale. Riggs recently held the artistic artis-tic reigns for "The Sound of Music" at the Shell last month and will direct the concert version ver-sion of "Les Miserables" for the SCERA Encore Season this November. V - - Boy meets girl in the Wild West as spunky Polly Baker (Britani Bateman) and city banker and theatre wannabe Bobby Child (Jake Fry) fall in love in Gershwin's musical comedy dance extravaganza "Crazy For You". Directed by Syd Riggs, it plays August 8-16 at Orem's SCERA Shell Outdoor Out-door Theatre. (Photo by Mark Philbrick) . t - and Karen Ashton Tennessee, with a friend, Sydney Reynolds, and returned home inspired. in-spired. "We can do this!" she declared. de-clared. The Timpanogos Storytelling Festival was established estab-lished by a group called the Friends of the Orem Library as a means to raise funds for the construction of the library addition. addi-tion. "Orem City has bent over backwards back-wards to do all they can," Karen said. The festival began in 1989, and has become a significant local lo-cal tourist attraction, but also an enriching cultural experience. Karen noted that at the end of this year's festival, the Friends of the Library will be gifting a sizable amount to the Provo Li-brary Li-brary for the purchase of books. Continued on page 2 She is using the talents of Cathy Black of the BYU Dance Department as choreographer, Jennifer Johnson Webb, a musicdancetheater major at BYU as music director, and Orem High School's orchestra, a capella, show, and chamber director Laurie Bitters as orchestra or-chestra conductor. Jerry Elison, another veteran SCERA director, will go in front of the stage for "Crazy For You" to play the part of Everett Baker. Other performers include Robert Land, Sean Curtis, Katharine Matis, Larson Holyoak, Laurel Barham, Nanette Watts, and Jolene Sayers. Oldies 94.1 and Utah Power are sponsors of "Crazy For You". For additional information, contact con-tact SCERA at 225-ARTS or 225-2569, 10-5 weekdays. 1 I |