Bruce Bastian

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bruce Bastian is a computer programmer, businessman, philanthropist and social activist. He co-founded the WordPerfect Software Company with Dr. Alan Ashton in 1978 (originally known as Satellite Software International (SSI) and then changed to WordPerfect Corporation in 1982).

Bruce Bastion

Citizenship	American
Fields	Computer science
Alma mater	BYU
Doctoral advisor	Dr. Alan Ashton
Known for	CoFounder WordPerfect
Religious stance	Mormon

1 Education
2 Career
3 Philanthropy
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Education

While enrolled as a student at Brigham Young University, where he originally majored in music and was for a time the conductor of the BYU Cougar Marching Band, he developed a software program to help choreograph marching band performances, with the help of an instructor, Alan Ashton. When he lost his position with the marching band it was suggested that he just get his Master's Degree in computer science rather than in music.

[edit] Career

When he graduated in the spring of 1978, without a job, one was found for him at the Eyring Research Institute (ERI). Because he was the only computer programmer at ERI who understood enough Spanish to work on Weidner Communications' Multi-lingual Word Processor, originally performing translation and word processing work from Spanish into English, he was introduced to that Multi-lingual Word Processor’s technology for processing human languages, in the fall of 1978. Originally written in Fortran to be used on a DEC PDP-11/34 mini-computer, and later ported to the IBM PC. Today this software is sold by SDL International of England as Easy Translator and as The Enterprise Translation Server. This original program was the basis of what is now known as WordPerfect..^[1] ^[2]

At one time Bastian's net worth was estimated at $1.1 billion, earning him a place on the Forbes list of the 500 wealthiest individuals in America. The Utah Information Technology Association inducted him into its hall of fame a year after it honored Ashton.

[edit] Philanthropy

For years Bastian quietly bankrolled Utah's cultural arts, until somewhere along the way, “philanthropy transitioned to activism”. Bastian reduced his donations to the arts to dedicate more resources to what he considers a battle over fundamental human rights. “Where he sees injustice, he devotes himself to reversing it." Bastian contributed half of the Don't Amend Alliance's budget for fighting Utah's constitutional amendment defining marriage as between only a man and a woman. A native of Twin Falls, Idaho, he went on an LDS mission to Italy, and married in the LDS temple and had a family prior to coming to terms with his homosexuality and later becoming a social activist for gay rights.

He is a member of the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the U.S.'s largest Gay and Lesbian political action committee, and was grand marshal of the Utah Pride Festival's parade in 2004.^[3]

The Deseret News, a local newspaper in Utah, did an extensive profile on Bastian in 2003.^[4]