Peabody native enters science hall of fame at college
Three Southwestern College graduates were inducted Nov. 12 into the Southwestern College Natural Science Hall of Fame. The new members are E. Keith Hege, Tucson, Ariz., Verlin L. Hoberecht, (deceased, formerly of Peabody), and Ray A. Waller, Wichita.
Plaques were unveiled at 4:30 p.m. followed by dinner and induction at 5 p.m. in the Roy L. Smith Student Center.
Hoberecht was a native of Peabody.
The hall of fame honors SC alumni who have made significant contributions to the science world.
Verlin L. Hoberecht 1951 graduate of Southwestern College, began his career at IBM in 1960, and became involved in the development of programming methods needed to process and handle graphic information.
In 1969 he became manager of the Graphic Systems Architecture Department, responsible for defining systems guidelines and the communication protocols and data stream for the IBM 3270 display system. This was the most popular display terminal until the proliferation of the Windows-based PC.
He became manager of Communications Systems Architecture shortly thereafter, and had responsibility for the definition of data stream formats and protocols needed to support communication between different classes of end users of a communications network.
In 1976 he was awarded the prestigious IBM Outstanding Contribution and Invention Award for inventing the basis systems networking architecture concepts.
