Paul Oddo

Executive Vice President of Lifespire (Retired)

Lifespire Online Legacy

After 33 years of service, Paul Oddo, Executive Vice President of Lifespire retired in 2012.

Oddo joined Lifespire in 1979 as a Program Director. He then became Director of Management Systems and later Assistant Executive Director. He was named Executive Vice President in 1998.

In addition to his long service with Lifespire, he has worked tirelessly in multiple industry organizations. He was Vice Chairman of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Institute and a member of the Board of Directors of the New York State Rehabilitation Association (NYRSA), to which he was first elected in 1998. In 2000, he was elected to serve on the Board of Directors for New York State Industries for the Disabled. He is also active with the American Congress of Community Supports and Employment Services, a national organization that advocates on behalf of community rehabilitation programs, which serve the disabled.

“I'm pleased that I have been able to make a contribution to people with developmental disabilities. I’ve always considered my role similar to that of an orchestra conductor. Fully realizing that without the musicians in the pit, there would be no music. I’ve been fortunate to have had a staff that makes beautiful music,” shares Oddo.

Paul was truly ahead of his time. He understood how to translate Lifespire’s needs into applications that would not only speed up employee work flow but cut cost in the process. There has been no greater contribution to the success of Lifespire more than his program AIMS, IM4, Lifespire.exe Application and www.lifespireOnline.org. Oddo, will remain with Lifespire in an advisory capacity and in particular continue to provide support for his extensive suite of web-based applications, which he designed and implemented over the years.

Tim VeArd (1944-2013)

Developer of Lifespire Online

Lifespire Online Legacy

Tim has been described as an amazing creator, coder and software developer. Tim taught himself to write computer code in the early mid 70’s. It was also during this time the Tim worked at the Pentagon. It’s amazing that Lifespire Online was a result of events which go back to the 1970’s. It was in the late 70’s that Wang began marketing the Wang 2200 Mini Computer System. As fate would have it, due to a classification error (the 2200 was identified as a computing device rather than a computer system) Pentagon employees were able to purchase 2200 systems without having to obtain the special approvals necessary for purchasing a computer system. Once the error was discovered, all who had purchased a 2200 system were required to use it without purchasing software from Wang or others. Faced with a challenge, VeArd proceeded to design and code a database management system which made it possible for users to design their own database systems without having to write a single line of computer code. AIMS was born. AIMS is the acronym for Advanced Information Management Systems. In 1978 he left government and accepted a job in Austin Texas to use his software to better manage an existing business. Subsequently, he received funding to start marketing his software idea, which became AIMS+Plus.

It was in 1981 that ACRMD (now Lifespire) received a grant from the New York State Office of Vocational Rehabilitation to purchase a Wang 2200 Mini Computer System. Along with the System, ACRMD purchased a license for AIMS+Plus so that applications could be developed without the need for a computer programmer. It was also at that time that Paul Oddo was promoted to Director of Management Systems. In short, Oddo was tasked with developing computer applications for ACRMD. As the IBM PC took hold and mini computer system became less attractive, database applications at ACRMD evolved as well to a version of AIMS+Plus written for PC’s and PC networks called IM or Information Management. It was during this time that Oddo and VeArd got to know each other and began collaborating. By this time VeArd Computer Research (Tim’s firm) had moved to Florida.

In hindsight, VeArd developed cloud based computing long before the term was invented. This is so because ACRMD’s data resided on a server in Austin Texas were VeArd also hosted a network for the US Army Medical Command. By using the young Internet, ACRMD staff worked on and use Lifespire Online in New York but the data resided in Texas. It should be noted that an event which gave rise to Lifespire Online was the fact that IM was no longer supported. A new solution had to be found which Lifespire Online became. Lifespire Online was a collaborative effort between Oddo and VeArd. Oddo was the software architect who specified the structure, field, field type, field length, screen sequence, sort fields and math formulas and Veard would proceed to write the computer code which made it all possible. At the same time, a user would have the ability to a wide variety of searches, sorts, set up new users and select fields that would be displayed on the List Screen making it possible to export those fields to an Excel spreadsheet.

Throughout his career, Tim was a highly recognized software programmer, analyst and engineer who helped a many organizations worldwide. His many positions in government and the computer industry have included electronics engineer, programmer, analyst, manager, teacher and consultant. He was a pioneer in the development of GPS. He logged over 2.5 million air miles to 53 countries and 49 states and was a well-known international speaker who appeared on TV in several countries. He taught computer courses at various universities and conducted seminars in dozens of countries. He lectured at the Soviet Academy of Science in Moscow and was a consultant to the South African government on establishing national computer standards & laws. This great individual sadly passed away on April 7, 2013.