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Tony Benson, 1936-2005

Peter Davidson, Information Age

20/04/2005 14:27:29

Anyone wanting to contact the top echelons of ICT management in Australia on Friday, February 18, would have needed to call the Macquarie Park Crematorium in Sydney's northern suburbs.

Suited and sweltering in a blustery nor'wester, the men and women steering our industry's course now and before, had gathered to farewell Tony Benson in a what was tantamount to a convocation of industry leadership.

Spilling out onto the forecourt of the chapel if unable to find standing room inside, they heard spoken tributes to his life and works, predominantly at NCR for 39 years and across a wide spectrum of industry associations and advisory bodies.

A Pearcey medallist, he was also an ACS Fellow and Honorary Life Member in recognition of his contribution to the society since joining it as the NSW Computer Society in 1964.

Later, in Perth, he chaired the organising committee for the ACS' 1976 national conference and went on to become WA Branch Chairman, national Vice President and then President of ACS in 1978 and 79.

Working closely with the WA Institute of Technology to set up the first ACS student mentoring program in Australia, he also joined the board of the ACS Foundation after its foundation in 2001.

A four-month struggle with cancer took him at 68.

ACS national president Edward Mandla said the Australian ICT sector has lost a shining star. "Tony Benson made an extraordinary contribution to the ICT industry as a software engineer, manager and entrepreneur, and as a mentor for ICT start-ups. He was respected as much for his strategic insights and passion for ICT, as he was for his understanding, negotiating skills and humour. "Tony was never one to allow a challenge to hold him back. He was an extremely positive person with an enormous curiosity for life and could always be relied upon to add value in any situation. It is amazing how many people he touched in our industry. He will be greatly missed."

Among eight eulogies recalling his professional and personal life, all of which drew applause, one delivered by NCR colleague for 31 years, and mate, Brian Benson (no relation) stood out. He recalled his first meeting:

"Tony joined NCR in 1960 as a scientific programmer. In the next five years he rose within the company, helping it to move from mechanical business machines into the computer era.

"It was at this time that I first met Tony. I had been working as the IT manager for a major company. I desired to work for a computer manufacturer and walked into NCR in York Street and asked the receptionist if I could talk to someone about employment.

"She went and got this guy. He was slightly shorter than me, had a haircut similar to that which I have now and enthusiastically sprang into the reception area. He thrust out his hand and said 'Tony Benson'. I thrust out my hand into his and said: 'No, Brian Benson'.

"We worked out the coincidence of our surnames, an exchange that we discussed many times over the years. Perhaps the greatest mistake that Tony ever made, particularly in the minds of some later management, was that he offered me a job that afternoon and I accepted it.

"So began a long working association with him that we both found fruitful, other than the frustration of continually receiving each other's mail and phone calls.

"While working directly for him in those early days, my recollections include standing with him around the morning tea trolley with other members of the staff, including Georgette.

"In those days, Tony enjoyed a beer or two or three or however many. Most evenings, after work, Tony, Ron Martin and myself would wander up to the Combined Services Club in Barrack Street and see who could make the greatest mess of their lives.

"In 1970, Tony was appointed to the position of the Manager, South East Asian Regional Computer Support Centre and he offered me a position in that organisation. I accepted the position, together with a continuation of the after-hours social program with Tony and Ron.

"Then in 1972, it all changed. NCR Corporation appointed a new Managing Director, by the name of Ernie Gavett, to Australia. Ernie had his own ideas about people and made a number of management changes, not the least of which was the sideways promotion of Ron Martin to Canberra and Tony Benson to Perth. In the 10 years that Tony was in Perth in sales management, he proved extremely successful in maximising the business in that state and later across South Australia and the Northern Territory.

One of his personal achievements in that time was the major sale of computers to the Western Australian Treasury. This sale came about through his personal association with Gordon Reid, who headed up their IT department."

Benson also delivered Gordon Reid's tribute, which included:

"In 1982, sometime after Ernie Gavett had been promoted sideways back to the US, Tony returned to Sydney in the role of national sales manager of the computer division, heading up a team of 120 salespeople. But things had changed. He no longer drank and he walked every day. That was a bit of a shock, particularly to me, but I saw just how committed he was to the change and respected him for it.

"Then in 1984, Tony was appointed to create the product marketing division. He offered me a position of product manager and I worked with Tony in that position for four years, during which time the only real problem between us was his continual questioning of my expense claims, both local and overseas. Naivety was not part of his character.

"Our association in NCR was built on more than just manager and team member. Tony was my confidant, mentor and friend.

"Our friendship continued past my resignation in 1996, past Tony's retirement in 1999 and right up until he was taken from us.

"But I best remember Tony as The Man at NCR.

"He was a gentleman. He was loyal in every way, to the company and his friends. He was a dreamer, believing that everything could always be done a better way. He was a mentor to many people; his door was always open. He was highly intelligent. He was a pioneer in so many ways. He was honest, sincere and trustworthy - he never wronged a person in his life. And above all, he was a friend.

"Without question, he won the respect and admiration of his peers. That was our Tony."

His Pearcey Medal citation in 2001 included: "At Sydney University Tony majored in mathematics and chemistry, graduating with Honours In 1957. In his honours year he used one of the first computers in Australia, Silliac, for research in crystallography.

"This proved so fascinating that he changed his plans for an academic career in theoretical chemistry to one in computing and in 1960 resigned from a Teaching Fellowship at the University of NSW to join NCR as a Scientific Programmer.

"His first project was the analysis of 30 years of accumulated data held by the Ionospheric Prediction Service to forecast the radio frequencies to be used to reach the northern hemisphere. This was a massive data capture task using adding machines and punched paper tape, with a linear regression program for the forecasting.

"He attended the first NCR 315 international programming course held in Dayton Ohio in 1961 and installed the first two 315 systems in Sydney and Melbourne, training programmers in NCR and its first customers."

In Daytona, his path crossed again with Dr Peter Jones, who recalls being offered the chance to use Orville and Wilbur Wright's shower in the Bishop's House there.

"NCR maintained the old house as a heritage site for the flight pioneers, and in it was a shower with circular sprays which the brothers used, first as bicycle makers and later as aviators, to ease the bruising which many crashes brought.

"Tony organised my permission to use it; it was thrill, and typical of the kindness of a man who did so much to promote our industry in Australia, particularly our small businesses, the people who have served it."

Tony Benson held executive and board positions with Grouputer Corporation and Grouputer Solutions, a founder of bullant Technology, marketboomer, Prism International, the Australian Centre for Advanced Computing and Communications (AC3), the Australian Information Industry Association and was the first chairman of Software Engineering Australia (SEA).

He is survived his wife Georgette and five children.