Rita Wondrak's Bio Page

Welcome to my bio page.

This page will contain a brief biographical sketch of my life, describing how I originally got interested in data processing and giving more information about my life and career as a computer programmer.

I was born and raised in Chicago Illinois, in the heart of the American midwest. That's a very practical place, and by the time I entered college, I knew I wished to do something very practical, and accomplish something in this world, so I enrolled at the Illinois Institute of Technology as a student of Metallurgical Engineering. No 'vague' liberal arts stuff for me, practicality was my goal. But it didn't quite work out that way for me, the very first semester I was placed in a philosophy class as part of an experimental program. The experiment must have worked for me because even after the very first class session, I was hooked. Eventually, I changed my major to philosophy of science, in which I received a bachelor's degree from Johns Hopkins University. The next phase of my life took me to New Haven Connecticut and Yale University, where I completed my formal education with a Master's Degree in History of Science and Medicine.

Wondering how all of this led me into data processing, since it seems that by this time I had spent years away from computers. Well that was exactly what got me too. I was trying at this point to get a university teaching job, but this proved fruitless at the time. So I looked around for something to do with my life. By this time, I was living in Brooklyn New York, feeling rather useless, but life had a few surprises in store for me. I asked myself what I could do, and started to look alphabetically at the New York Times want ads. Eventually, I started wondering about computers, after all I had 2 whole computer courses in college while I was an engineering major so what did I have to lose?

I applied and believe it or not, I got the very first job that I applied for. That was at Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company...

More later....

E-Mail me at rita@wondrak.com