Geac Notes

Stuff that Geac (perhaps) doesn't want you to know ...

What does "Geac" stand for?

From Don Bagshaw (2000-04-07):
Dill German, Gus's dad, told me they were fooling around with names, somebody threw out General Educational and Consulting, they picked off the acronym and decided it would not stand for anything. The other candidate he told me about was Thor Computers, with a lightning bolt for a logo. The first Geac T-shirts had a lightning bolt printed on, in fond memory of Thor. Geac was initially spelled in all caps (GEAC), in slanted block letters. This logo was painted on our compnay van, and stayed that way until someone noticed that it looked like GERC (jerk), so it was changed to Geac.
Addendum from Chris Martin:
I heard that it wasn't until Geac opened an office in England that capitalized version of "GEAC" became an issue. It was too close to "GEC" (General Electric Company) so some lawyers got involved and a compromise on "Geac" was reached.
Addendum from Gus German (2000-04-09):
Bob Isserstedt's uncle or father-in-law (a German "Baron") suggested GEAC... I recall bob saying it resembled "Univac" (Unisys).
In England when we were defending a law suit brought by GEC (General Electric Computing , no relation to GE) for "passing-off" on the name "GEC", I was in the law offices of Alen&Overy?, I read in a defence document that Bob had helped prepare.. that Geac meant "GErman And Company". That stuck with me. ( My ego was insufferable :-)
Other possibilities for the GEAC acronym:
- God's Electronic Answer to Computers
- Get Everyone Another Cocktail
- Greatest Error in Automated Computing
- Get Educated And Compete
- Good Environment for Acquiring Companies
- Grossly Eccentric And Complicated
- Gee Everyone Acts Confused

Stuff that Mike Sweet (probably) doesn't want you to know ...

I've heard lots of amusing anecdotes about Dr. Sweet's eccentricities over the years. With my faulty memory, I don't want to try pass them on fourth-hand, but if anyone who actually witnessed or participated in such events wants to provide a write-up for posterity, I'll include it here.

Note/Disclaimer/Apology:
I was lucky enough to have personal contact with Mike on a couple of projects and I have the utmost respect for him.

The "Geaction" Newletter

From Chris Martin (2000-04-07):

At a few different points in its history Geac published a newletter called "Geaction". It was done primarily for distribution to employees and was published on an irregular schedule. I thought it was pretty well done and managed to acquire a nearly complete collection (including back issues) during my tenure there. I still have them if anyone ever needs to borrow them for research purposes.

I've thought about scanning in the collection to make it available online to everyone, but there are copyright issues that would need to be resolved first.


Disclaimer: I am no longer employed by Geac and the company does not endorse this service in any way. Geac has an official Web page at www.geac.com.


Last updated 2006-12-11 by exgeac-admin@catnap.com.

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