Computer lab named to honor Butler's dedication to Lipscomb
Chris Pepple |
Lipscomb’s Department of Computing and Information Technology announced the opening of the Dr. W. Ralph Butler Computer Lab honoring Butler’s 40 years of work with computing with the university. The lab, located on the first floor of the McFarland building, will give computing majors access to the computers and will be used for classes beginning with the fall semester.
“Dr. Butler has been responsible for computing on Lipscomb’s campus since the early 1970s. He would say he had help along the way and I’m sure that’s true, but everywhere you turn with regard to computing on campus you see Ralph Butler’s fingerprints. The naming of the new computer lab after Dr. Butler is a small token of appreciation for all he has done for computing at Lipscomb,” said Don Geddes, assistant professor and department chair.
In 1964, Butler began teaching at Lipscomb as a physics professor. In 1972, he helped install a “remote batch” punch card system which students used to develop programs which were run on a computer at Vanderbilt. Butler became the director of the computer center in 1982 when the first major in computer science was offered and all processing was done on campus for the first time. The major was offered under the physics and engineering sciences department. In 1991, Butler directed the first on-campus network where every computing lab was networked and every professor had a computer on their desk for the first time. Under Butler’s direction, the Department of Computing and Information Systems became a separate entity in 1999. The new computing lab, which will be available to computing majors, is just the most recent step in the department and on-campus computing that has come into existence under his tutelage.
“I am humbled by the honor given me by my colleagues in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences. Everything I have been able to do for the university has been accomplished because of the encouragement of my family and because I have worked with teams of individuals who were enthusiastic, capable and dedicated to the goals involved in providing our students with the best possible educational experience. I thank everyone who has had a part in creating the computer room named in my honor and in the journey that has led up to this event,” said Butler.