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The Original Fox Development Team in Toledo |
"The original development team in Toledo was composed of the following people. The 90's were a good time to work at Microsoft and most of them are retired now. I don't think any of the developers left Microsoft to work somewhere else."
"All the people on this list, and others who worked on FoxPro after the merger, did fine work and the product wouldn't be the same without them. I don't mean any disrespect to anyone on the list by highlighting the special contributions that Eric and Bill made. Everyone on this list did important work, but maybe Eric and Bill stood a little taller than the rest."
"I think also that the special contributions that Janet Walker made to the team may not be fully appreciated by those not involved. Janet wore a lot of hats at Fox, and was the Group Program Manager on the Microsoft FoxPro team. She and Dave acted as the designers of the product. I think it's fair to say that the primary visionary behind the product and the company was Dave Fulton, but Janet had a much more direct role in designing FoxPro than many people understand. If the only contact someone had with her was in her capacity as "tender to the gurus," they might not understand the central role she played in putting the product together." (Walter Kennamer)
Eric Christensen: Eric is still at Microsoft, now as a senior developer on SQL Server. He and Dave designed Rushmore, and he implemented it. He and Bill Ferguson were the most senior developers on the team and were just incredible programmers. Eric moved to the SQL Server team as soon as we moved to Redmond. Eric developed the database engine (and much else) in FoxPro.
Bill Ferguson: Bill got all the projects that nobody else thought were possible, like writing a linker for FoxPro. He implemented most of the FoxPro language and owned the compiler/interpreter. He later worked on Visual Studio before retiring.
Chris Williams: Chris was the first development manager of FoxPro at Microsoft. Later he ran Visual Studio, and eventually became the VP of Human Resources for the whole company. He's retired now.
Brian Tallman: Brian did a lot of the internal database engine work and played a major role in developing the memory manager and CDX indexes. He also wrote the window manager and other low-level "manager" routines. After the merger he was a Development Manager in the Fox team, and later he worked on Windows. He's retired now.
Amy Fulton: Dave Fulton's wife. Amy did a lot of the initial UI work in FoxPro 2.0, especially with RQBE. She and Dave retired about a year after moving to Redmond.
Dave Heindel: Dave wrote the READ command and played a big role in the development of the Mac product. Now retired.
Marty Sedluk: Marty was a Mac expert and also did some pioneering work in the report designer. Now retired.
Kerry Nietz: Kerry worked on the screen and report designer, and, later, on Expedia. Now retired.
Brian Crites: Brian worked on a lot of areas in FoxPro and was a Development Lead on the team. He's a senior developer on Windows Media now.
Sally Stuckey: Sally worked throughout the product, and I guess has spent more time working on FoxPro than anyone. She stayed on the FoxPro team until her recent retirement, and so probably amassed more total programming hours on the product than any other developer.
Henry Seurer: Henry was a Mac expect hired in Toledo shortly before the merger. He worked on a number of areas in FoxPro and later on geographical products at Microsoft.
Brad Serbus: Now a big-shot in Windows, Brad was also a Mac expect brought onto the team shortly before the merger.
Jadwiga Carlson: Jadwiga did not join Microsoft after the merger, though certainly we would have loved to have her. She was the original author of Genscrn.prg, the transporter and other tools.
Jim Simpkins: Jim did the original UNIX port of FoxPro, but decided to become a program manager when he came to Redmond, after finishing his MBA at Wharton. He became a group program manager before retiring a few years ago.