Encyclopedia Dubuque
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SCHMITT, Joseph R.
SCHMITT, Joseph R. (West Newton, PA-- ). Schmitt was educated at the University of Pennsylvania where he received B.S. and B.A. degrees. He also attended the Harvard Graduate School of Business. He served as as officer in the U. S. Navy during WORLD WAR II. (1)
SCHMIT joined the A.Y. McDonald Company in 1965 after being an executive with the Barnes Manufacturing Company of Mansfield, Ohio. Schmitt became McDonald's director of sales and manufacturing before being named vice president. Elected president and chief executive officer of A.Y.MCDONALD MANUFACTURING COMPANY in 1970, Schmitt left the company by the late 1970s to establish J. R. Schmitt Consulting Inc. of Dubuque. In what was a cutting-edge move in the computer business, Schmitt and his daughter-in-law, Glenda, as the programmer, established one of the earliest examples of computer-assisted financial accounting. The LNW Small Business and Professional Accounting Series moved the management of small business accounts from record books to the computer.
The system kept track of a company's bills and alerted the firm when the money should be available for the payment of bills. It recorded the payroll, wrote checks and provided the information needed for government records. It computed income and expense reports; kept a brief informational file on each employee; produced mailing labels; and listed the status of individual vendor accounts.
After a low-key beginning, interest in the program soared as the need for such innovation became obvious. Their big break came when Joseph took the idea to LNW Computers in Tustin, California. Within a year, the Schmitt program was being shipped with each LNW80 Model 2 computer. (2)
In 1978 Schmitt, then a business consultant, headed the expansion project for the CARNEGIE-STOUT PUBLIC LIBRARY. (3)
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Source:
1. "McDonald Appoints Top-Level Officers," Telegraph Herald, September 27, 1970, p. 17
2. Goessl, Joan, "Popular Business Software Program Fills the Right Bills," Telegraph Herald, November 16, 1983, p. 19
3. Freund, Bob, "A Hushed But Directed Campaign..." Telegraph Herald, August 27, 1978, p. 21