Rich Kelmer

Life at Wittenberg

Graduation Year: 1978

Major: Math

Department Activities: I was a straight-up Math major. No minors at Wittenberg at that time, and no computer science was offered.

Extra Curricular: Wittenberg Choir member (4 years); Business Manager of Witt Choir (1978)

Most Helpful Classes: I wasn’t a stellar math student, but I’ve never regretted my decision to stick with the math major.

Courses You Wish You Would’ve Taken: I wish I’d gotten to know my professors better on a 1-on-1 basis. The opportunity was there, but didn’t take advantage. Students today at small schools like Wittenberg do a better job at this than we did 30 years ago. Given my interest in foreign languages, too bad I never studied abroad during my Wittenberg years. Again, there are more opportunities today than there were then. I should have taken private organ lessons while at Wittenberg. So much to do, so little time!

Most Helpful Experiences: Very positive experience overall. I worked hard academically, but most of my other energies were directed toward Wittenberg Choir and music interests. Frankly I was not as passionate about math as I was about music, but math was my employment meal ticket and enabled me to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle that I couldn’t have had as a professional musician.

Jobs

First Job: Joined IBM Corporation as a Systems Engineering Trainee (technical sales) in the Dayton, Ohio, sales office in July 1978, and never left IBM.

Current Job: Senior Sales Specialist

I sell the IBM WebSphere brand of software to corporate customers in central Illinois.

Salary: $100,000 – 500,000

Life

Marital status: Married

Children: Daughter, Grace, is a freshman at Illinois Wesleyan University.

New Hobbies: Soccer, reading, running.

Contact Me

Email: rkelmer AT us.ibm.com

Phone: 3096616743

Currently Living in: Bloomington, Illinois Updated 4/13/09