Duane Gilchrist is
an old-timer with continuous experience in computers
since 1960. After 2 years in the securities brokerage
business, in 1960, Duane with his wife, Myra's help,
launched a computer based, technical, statistical
stock market report, Market Monitor, along with a
related advisory report, Market Guidance. This was
maintained from their home in Silverton Oregon,
renting time on the earliest main frames available in
Portland.
This venture
continued for several years and was followed by 8
years when Duane worked in the insurance industry as
a systems analyst and project manager.
In 1975, with the
family grown, Duane and his wife Myra, elected to
fulfill another lifetime desire. They joined a
Christian Mission organization, Campus Crusade for
Christ, International. Duane developed computer
systems for this worldwide organization, and Myra
served in Human Resources.
After several years
of system development and project management, Duane
was promoted to Director of Computer Services, later
including Mail Systems, Donor Involvement and Central
Word processing.
During this time, in
1978 he purchased his first micro computer, (The
first one to surface, The MITS Altair kit, you old
timers out there may recall it! This micro preceeded
IBM's and Apple's micro-computer offerings by about 3
to 5 years. In the early days, they were called
micros, not PC's). As you can imagine, there have
been numerous upgrades in his personal computer
installations since then!
This early
experience with micros encouraged him to introduce
personal computers into Campus Crusade, well ahead of
their general acceptance by most computer main frame
managements.
Duane and his wife
Myra, transferred to the field ministry of Campus
Crusade for Christ, in the late 80's, to serve as
City Director for the Here's Life branch of Campus
Crusade ministry in Portland Oregon.
In the mid 90's they
were re-assigned to Campus Crusade's Associate Staff
group, giving them more flexibility in their
ministry.
They are closely
involved in their church, Southwest Bible Church, of
Beaverton Oregon, (pastored by their son, Scott) and
The Portland Downtown Bible Class, which they helped
found, with other businessmen, in 1993. The class has
grown with regular weekly attendance of 150 - 200 men
and women each Wednesday noon.
Blessed with
Christian parents, Duane has been a Christian,
"believer" for approximately 70 years. As a
child, about 6 years of age, he trusted his Lord
Jesus Christ as his personal Saviour. It has been a
growing, satisfying relationship with him as God has
richly blessed him through life!
In 1995, after 20
years of full time service with Campus Crusade, in
semi-retirement, as Associate Staff, Duane began to
devote more time to developing some business
applications on the PC.
Development of reProbe,
the real estate
investment analysis system:
A couple of his
friends were active, successful real estate brokers
and attended a 2 day seminar that gave them valuable
instructions in how to properly evaluate and
inter-relate all the variables that impact the
profitability of investment real estate opportunities.
Duane
recognized this detailed study as a good application
for a PC. When
it was completed, (it proved to be a larger project
than seen at first!), it was a great time saver.
Also, it allowed the broker and the prospect to see,
perhaps for the first time, just how the proposed
investment could work out. It allowed the broker and
the prospect to work up the study as a team,
re-submitting some of the variables to get comparable
results under different circumstances.
The system,
identified as reProbe, has been marketed on the internet for
several years. In early 2001 it was re-programmed for
the Windows and Mac enviornments.