Name: Richard Ilson
Title: Instructor of Computer Science
Education:
Office: 318 Thurmond Building
Phone: 803/323-2674
E-mail: ilsonr@winthrop.edu
Area(s):
Richard Ilson joins Winthrop University as an Instructor in the Department of Computing and Information Sciences. Previously, he taught Computer Science at UNC Charlotte for fifteen years. Ilson grew up in the Bronx and went to school in the Boston area. He has been involved in document production since 1971, first as a typist on the first word processing systems, and then as a graduate student designing state-of-the-art electronic publishing systems. Ilson was one of the first employees of Infocom, the innovator of interactive fiction computer games in the 1980’s, and started their Business Products Division, building a PC database system. While in Boston he was also Director of Distributed Publisher at Interleaf, and later co-founded several companies. (His last company, True North Technologies, still produces high-precision electronic compasses.) After moving to Charlotte in 199,7 he homeschooled his three children before beginning his university teaching career. He lives in Matthews, NC and can be found on the tennis court anytime the weather (and his workload) permits.