Nathan A. Gans – 50th Reunion Essay

Nathan A. Gans

1438 W. Briarwood Ave

Littleton, Colorado 80120

nathanagans@gmail.com

415-867-3413

Spouse(s): Judith Brodie (1999)

Child(ren): Rachel Melendez (1975), Sarah Takahashi (1984)

Grandchild(ren): Kira Avery Butchokich (2018)

Education: Yale College, BA, 1969; Yale Graduate School, Ph.D. 1974

Career: Assistant Professor of English, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1974-76. Various software jobs, 1980-2002. Chief Operating Officer, WideOrbit, 2002-2017

Avocations: Family, friends, hiking, nature, dogs, reading

College: Jonathan Edwards

I’ve been fortunate since the annus mirabilis 1969—good health, good companions, gainful and stimulating employment. Like many of my classmates, since the Vietnam War I was able to live my life relatively untroubled by history, not directly affected by war, famine, plague, and other evils, at least until November 2016. Now this holiday from history is jeopardized by growing authoritarianism here and abroad, a source of anxiety to my family and me.

Yale College was a wonderful experience for me. It did take me a while to grow up. For those of you who knew me personally in college, I finally became an adult in my early 40s. In his recent survey, Tom Guterbock asked us to write a letter to ourselves as we were when we graduated 50 years ago. My chief message to my 22-year-old self was “You are not nearly as smart as you think you are.” I wish I could have understood that then.

I was also fortunate to have met Judith Brodie 22 years ago and to have been adopted by her, her daughters Sarah and Rachel, and their cats and dogs. Judith is a wonderful life companion. Sarah and Rachel are now grown. Those cats and dogs have gone, but worthy successors have taken their place. Sarah and her husband, Kevin, had a baby girl, Kira, on April 14, 2018. We all live in the Denver area.

I’ve enjoyed living in some beautiful places—in Old Lyme on the estuary of the Connecticut river, while getting my Ph.D. at Yale, and then, for 20 years, in a cabin on a dead-end, dirt road at 8,000 feet in the Rockies. I have climbed 22 peaks above 14,000 feet (and tried unsuccessfully to climb more). Outside family, my great love is hiking above the tree line. Living in the Denver suburbs as we do now, I can be at trailheads at 11,000 feet in an hour.

Even while working for a software business, I was able to indulge the intellectual interests I developed at Yale. I read as much history and science as I could, even when from a career standpoint I should have been educating myself more about technology and the media business. I am glad that I was able to do so.

Judith and I are in reasonably good health, considering our age. I enjoy spending time with her and the “kids,” communing with dogs, watching birds, walking, reading, seeing friends, and staying in touch with JE 69ers via e-mail, phone, teleconference, and occasional visits.

My career turned out to be one of indirection and opportunity rather than one of accomplishment of a long-standing goal.

After graduating from Yale College, I returned to my home town, Macon, Georgia, to deal with the draft board. There, I wrote editorials for the local newspaper. I returned to New Haven in 1971 and started graduate school. I got a Ph.D. in English from Yale in 1974 and taught for a couple of years at Georgia Tech. In 1976, I moved to Colorado to live in the mountains.

For three years I taught undergraduate and graduate English courses in the University of Colorado system, but only as adjunct faculty. Concurrently I worked as a writer at the National Center for High Education Management Systems, affiliated with the University of Colorado in Boulder.

In 1980 with no software experience, I persuaded Columbine Systems, a small media software company in Golden, Colorado, to hire me. As the company grew, I worked in succession as a technical writer, programmer, support manager, and ultimately services director. I left Columbine in 1990 and for the next 12 years managed consulting and support for several tech companies in the Denver-Boulder area and one in Santa Clara, California.

In 2002 I was fortunate enough to join some terrifically talented people in San Francisco who had recently started another media software company, WideOrbit, as the company’s chief operating officer. WideOrbit grew rapidly, and I enjoyed contributing to its growth. I commuted two out of three weeks from Denver to San Francisco for 5 years and monthly for the next 11. It was a great place to work and a great adventure for me. While there, I made lifelong friends.

I retired at the end of 2017.