February 1986. I was in Oakland, CA, and Lou Katz, founding president of USENIX, asked me whether I was interested in becoming Executive Director of the organisation. He showed me the ad and the job description. I applied. I was interviewed by Debbie Scherrer, Steve Johnson, and Tom Ferrin. I got the job.

The next three years were the most fun I can imagine anyone having while getting paid for it. We were running 4.2BSD and then 4.3BSD on a VAX 780. Early in 1987 we got a SUN and a 3/60 and two 3/50s.

In 1987, I sponsored the first LISA; the first POSIX workshop; the first C++ workshop. We began the publication of Computing Systems. We sponsored the founding of UUNET by Rick Adams and Mike O'Dell.

I'm full of nostalgia.