1. Nelson Ford was born on 1946 and was one of the founders of shareware software distribution, of HAL-PC, of the Association of Shareware Professionals, founder of the Public Library, the largest commercial library of public domain and shareware software, and of the first major order processing service for shareware programmers.
Nelson Ford wrote several shareware games: CardShark Hearts, CardShark Spades, and CardShark Bridge Tutor.
Nelson Ford was inducted into the Shareware Hall Of Fame in August 2001.
Nelson Ford was born in 1946 in San Antonio, Texas, USA.
Nelson Ford served 4 years in the United States Marine Corps, 19 months in Viet Nam.
Nelson Ford graduated from the University of Texas at Austin, with a BBA in Accounting and moved to Houston, Texas where he met and married Kay Hightower Ford.
Nelson Ford became a Certified Public Accountant in Texas and worked for Daniel Industries, Inc and Pennzoil Company before forming Public Library.
In 1979, Nelson Ford got his first personal computer, a Radio Shack Model II.
In 1985, Nelson Ford began working on a conference of shareware programmers, bulletin board system operators, and shareware disk distributors with the goal of creating an industry trade organization.
In 2001, Nelson Ford was inducted into the ASP Hall Of Fame.
Nelson Ford eventually created a large, organized library of programs and his group made copies for other members for a disk fee.
In 1984, Nelson Ford wrote a column named The Public Library in Softalk-PC magazine.
When people around the world were not able to get programs discussed in the column because they lacked economical access to bulletin board systems, they wrote to Nelson Ford asking for copies, which he made for a disk fee.
Nelson's wife, Kay Ford, ran the operation of PsL while Nelson ran the technical side.