Ronald Albright
Advisor of the TI Orphans


Ronald Albright was a productive author and an excellent advisor for the TI community. His publications were versatile and very useful. His 'Orphan' books gave many TI user new perspective and hope for the future. Ronald was active in the TI community from 1983 till 1988. In that period he became a close friend to many within the various User Groups, and the movers and shakers of the time. Sadly many of whom are long gone. Ronald Albright was a willing and always available source of information to the entire community. He travelled to a large number of TI meetings across the USA and actively supported them. In 1984 Ronald became the secretary of the Valley 99ers User Group from Columbus, OH.
Ronald Albright was for a short period also co-owner and vendor of Heritage Computer Services. The programs this firm had in their catalogue were: Translator II, Daily Diary, Exer-Log and Trak-a-Check.

The list of Ronald Albright's publications for the TI-99/4A and Geneve is long and impressive. The bulk of his writings you can find in their original form on the transfer site of Western Horizon Technologies: ftp://ftp.whtech.com/. Alternatively, edited, corrected and retyped versions are available on the 'The Cyc' DVD, issued by Mike Wright of CaDD in Salem, NH.

For 99er Magazine he wrote together with Don Veith an article titled: Toure de Boards, a complete Bulletin Board download tutorial for the Palm Beach, TIBBS.

For the Genial TRAVelER disk magazine of Barry Traver he wrote two articles: Ron Albright was a regular contributor for the TI magazine MICROpendium. There he published:
In 1986 Ronald Albright wrote a news bulletin for the TI community called: TI Network News (TINN). The first issue of TINN was spread by Delphi's TI Information Network. Unluckily there was no follow up on this initiative.

Ronald Albright took over as the TI-99 columnist for Computer Shopper in March 1986 and formed together with Jonathan Zittrain the Computer Shopper TI Forum. In this role they produced a lot of information for the TI community, including hard- and software reviews, programming tips and faire reports. Ronald also published the listing of his TI game 'CInvaders', written in c99.

Ronald was also on the Expert Member Board for CompuServe's TI Forum. He first logged on to the Forum about February 1984. He became a sysop 11 months later. He wrote several articles and a book about CompuServe: Cruising the Forum: an article by Ron Albright about how to use CompuServe efficiently and cost-effectively.

In June 1992 he wrote the book CompuServe Instant Reference (Publisher: Sybex Inc). It is a complete quick reference guide to the multitude of services and options available on CompuServe, with concise instructions for accessing and using system features, plus valuable tips on improving efficiency and minimizing costs.


Dr. Albright writing on his TI-99/4A computer
In 1983 the Consumer Division of Texas Instruments lost a lot of money and on the fateful October 13th "Black Friday" Texas Instruments announced they were ending production of the TI- 99/4A Home Computer. Ronald sent a letter to MICROpendium with the title: A Parable. In this letter he compared the TI-99 users with Orphans. Based on this metaphor he produced two books, that became very important for the future of the TI community.

The Orphan Chronicles: the book gives a history of events leading to TI dropping the 99/4A computer and the development of user groups, publications and third party developers since then. Published by Millers Graphics, May, 1985.

Orphan Survival Handbook: the book can be described as a collection of material gleaned from hundreds of user group newsletters and hundreds of hours of downloaded files from bulletin board systems. The book contains more than 200 pages of TI material, including schematics, hardware hacks, programs, tips, and tutorials. Published by Disk Only Software, January, 1987.

Ronald Albright was born on Christmas Day 1950 in Birmingham, AL. After graduating from the Fairfield High School, he became in 1973 Bachelor of Science at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL. In 1977 he was promoted as a Doctor of Medicine at the University of South Alabama in Mobile, AL. He and his wife Louise have a daughter and twin sons and reside in Trussville, AL. Ronald Albright left the TI Community in November 1988 and began serious writing in the PC world, including several computer books for the medical and healthcare world. But he admitted that his heart and spirit remained where his love of computers first took root - with the TI-99/4A. He still has every bit of his TI equipment and refuses to part with it - always muttering something about sentimental value.

After a career as an Army physician, he opened a practice in 1989 as an Internal Medicine Doctor in Birmingham, AL. His personal interests include guitar, computer and digital technology, digital photography, video editing, baseball card collecting, classic movies and reading.

Biography prepared by Terrie Masters and Berry Harmsen

Inducted into the TI99ers Hall of Fame on August 3, 2011

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