Graduating with a well-deserved “B.S. degree” in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State University in 1974, James (Poo-Poo) Penland began his career making toxic, chemical herbicides and pesticides for the CIBA-Geigy Corporation. But when the computer revolution began in the late ‘70’s, Jim traded in his corporate ascent up the corporate ladder with all it’s perks for the entrepreneurial lifestyle by moving into the frenzied world of computers and software. Microage, Compaq and JimBob were names that the software mogul associated himself with at first but he found himself wanting more... there was a longing to control his own destiny... Then in a circa 1983 conversation with his close, inner circle advisor and confidant, Jon (aka ‘JC’ also aka ‘Hayseed’) Aldrich, relating to the progress on an accounting software project that Jim was working on (for gratis) for JC, the name of Glacier Software was coined. Like they say... the rest is history.... and just this year, the “GlacierSoft” trademark was finalized.

Since that time it has lived up to it’s name.... as PooPoo so eloquently states “...while other companies have risen and fallen, Glacier Software moves slowly surely forward, micro-inch by micro-inch.... other software companies measure their project completion deadlines in weeks.... here at glaciersoft, we simply don’t do that... we just keep moving along....” One day, experts predict that California (and Silicon Valley with it) will fall into the Pacific Ocean. Poopoo looks forward to that time and says that Glacier Soft (with it’s corporate offices based on busy E. Maxwelton Drive in Des Moines) will still be around (and much more safe from the threat of oceanic erosion from either the Atlantic on the East or the Pacific on the LEFT coasts.

JC likes to tell the story of a battle that has been raging for nearly a decade and a half that might be termed... “technology versus GlacierSoft”... As JC tells it, “Jim started writing some accounting software for me for use on my 8088 4.77 mHz/8mHz ‘turbo’ based PC. The software ran good and slow (just the way that Jim liked it)... whenever, I’d comment on the speed of the application, Jim would threaten that he could install an autopurge function in the accounting software and get rid off all last week’s data (maybe 2-3 entries) that was BOGGING DOWN his software. Well, the next PC that we got was a 386 based unit --- boy it was fast in comparison to the 8088.... well it wasn’t too long thereafter that an ‘upgrade’ of the GlacierSoft product came out. It was buggy.... but Jim personally committed to fix the problem... and he did too by making the computer add everything in it’s dBase twice to double check the answer. It did this function with each keystroke and press of the enter button and bogged things down quite a bit.... Jim admitted that it was “a little slower, but hey... JC’s got all night anyway”.... “and we can always return to that data purge concept!!!”

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