I attended my great-uncle Phil's funeral last week. He had a career in computing starting in the 1960's; we had a lot in common and could swap stories about technology and business. We will miss him very much.
The memorial boards included this summary of his career and a batch of old business cards, as well as this certificate of his membership in the Data Processing Management Association, from 1981. (It's now the Association of Information Technology Professionals, AITP.)
One thing that struck me is that although the code of ethics lists responsibilities to one's employer, and separately to one's management, to fellow members (not to misuse the information you learned about their business, nor to sell to them at meetings!), and to the country at large -- there is no specific guidance towards the people affected by the use of data processing, those whose well-being or privacy could be negatively affected. That is a fixture of modern ethics codes, but didn't make the cut in 1981.
The University of Minnesota Library has records from the DPMA in its collection! https://archives.lib.umn.edu/repositories/3/resources/2474
What remain of Uncle Phil's business records are probably sitting in his rented storage unit; in his later years he never had the energy to sort through it or the determination to simply get rid of everything. While it might be interesting to see what is still there, I don't anticipate we will have the opportunity (or the energy, either!) to do so.
[#]InMemoriam #ComputingHistory
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