02
Sat, Nov
2 New Articles

Funeral Services Set for Al Barsa Jr.

Channel News
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

Funeral services for Al Barsa Jr. will be held Wednesday, April 9, at 10 a.m. in the Church of the Resurrection in Rye, N.Y. A wake preceding the service and be held from 2 p.m.--4 p.m. and 7 p.m.--9 p.m. Tuesday, April 8, in the Graham Funeral Home in Rye.

Barsa, 55, died suddenly Thursday, April 3, while attending COMMON. A longtime member of the IBM midrange community, Barsa was found dead in his Nashville hotel room of apparent natural causes just as the annual user group meeting was concluding its weeklong round of educational sessions.

Nashville police said Barsa was found Thursday night in his room at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, site of the convention. Friends reported that Barsa failed to show up on his scheduled flight into Kennedy International Airport and concerned family members then contacted the hotel. Friends said that Barsa had suffered a fall prior to leaving on the trip to Nashville. The impact broke his glasses and caused him to suffer a black eye, they said, but there was no indication afterwards that he incurred any lasting injury.

Barsa, president of Barsa Consulting Group LLC and Barsa Systems Distribution, Inc., in Purchase, N.Y., was an IBM Business Partner and longtime member of COMMON and the Long Island Systems User Group (LISUG). He was a frequent speaker at both COMMON U.S. and COMMON Europe. He served as editor of the COMMON Technical Library and was a member of the Speaker Excellence Committee. He had been voted COMMON's best speaker and received the organization's highest honor, the Distinguished Service Award, as well as having been named to the AS/400 Insider Weekly's "10 Biggest AS/400 Market Influences" list five times, the only person ever to have been so honored.

albarsajr.jpgBarsa was known as an enthusiastic business leader with an outgoing personality and sense of humor who loved the occasional joke. An expert on the System i and the CL language, he was considered a pioneer in the midrange field. He was both an outspoken critic and enthusiastic supporter of IBM and had close ties to many company executives. He was an early tester of both the System i operating system and new hardware, and bugs that he found in various releases of the operating system reportedly caused IBM to rework its code on more than one occasion. Among his favorite sayings were that "400 > (is greater than) 390" and "i comes before p, x, and z." He also believed to have coined the phrase, "It's the marketing, IBM!"

Longtime friend Curt Schwinck recalls one story Barsa would tell about an AS/400 he had installed for a client that ran so many years without maintenance that its owners literally forgot where it was located. The incident eventually was turned into an ad by IBM.

Skip Marchesani described Barsa as a "creative and brilliant" towering figure in the IBM midrange industry who would be sorely missed.

Trevor Perry, also a longtime friend of Barsa's, said, "Al was a force to be reckoned with in the AS/400 world. He was important because he could impact many people with his opinions, and for the most part, he was right. When he was wrong, or disagreed with your opinion, he stood up for his view. However, he would learn quickly, and he never held a grudge. He never stopped fighting for what he thought was right. Al will be missed."

Those at IBM who were often as not on the receiving end of Al's polemics regarding the System i learned to respect him despite any controversy in which he might be the focal point.

"I have the greatest respect for Al Barsa--as a father, a business owner, and as one of the most passionate and expressive members of the i community," said Mark Shearer, IBM vice president of Marketing and Offerings, Business Systems Division. "Since our first meeting, Al has been a trusted advisor, and I have learned that his community leadership has spanned decades. I'm going to miss Al's advice, but will work hard to honor him by continuing to be an active participant in the i community."

Born Oct. 7, 1952 in New York City, and raised in Rye, N.Y., Barsa graduated from The Cranwell School and received a B.S. in management and an MBA from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He was an avid sailor and started a small sailboat dealership at the age of 14 that later was recognized as one of the top U.S. dealers in its class. He belonged to the Westchester Country Club and was a leader in the club's sailing program.

Barsa is survived by his wife of 32 years, Susan, and his two children, Albert and Christina, along with his mother and father, Gloria and Albert Barsa, and sister, Barbara Jamison.

The Graham Funeral Home is located at 1036 Boston Post Road, Rye, N.Y. 10580, 914-967-0129, and the Church of the Resurrection is at 910 Boston Post Road in Rye. Postings may be left and more information found at http://www.lisug.org/ and http://www.mr400.com/.

 

Chris Smith

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: