A Thoroughly Modern Player Piano

Charlie Mathys was born in Brussels, Belgium and was brought to the US as a child but returned to Europe for his primary education. At age 14, he returned to the US to stay. He learned to speak English while attending high school and by age 20, he had graduated from college obtaining a BS degree in electrical engineering from Northeastern University. In 1963, he acquired an MBA degree from Boston College. After a 2-year stint in the US Army, he joined IBM at the very beginning of the computer era. He stayed at IBM for nearly 10 years before working for three small start-up companies doing computer research and development work hoping to find fame and fortune. He finally settled down at Mitre Corp, a non-profit, "think tank" corporation doing consulting work for the Electronic Systems division of the US Air Force. After retiring from Mitre, he combined his expertise in electronics and his love of boats to design an efficient electric motor for the propulsion of recreational boats. Several years later he designed an inexpensive RV conversion from a minivan. His skill and passion for computers and music challenged him to create a programmable modern player piano using an electronic keyboard and micro-computer, the results of his experiments are the subject of this book. He lives in Massachusetts and Florida with his wife. From there, they often visit the families of their children and grandchildren.