Alan RollinsSenior Technical Support Specialist
"The Story of Alan" opens and unfolds in Tacoma. The latter part of the story is yet to be written, of course. But judging from the early chapters, this saga will lead to a happy ending in Tacoma as well.
Reserved among strangers but gregarious and affable among friends, Alan Rollins is very nearly a native of the Proctor District in Tacoma. He was born in the Lacey-Olympia area, but by the time he was two his family had found their way to Proctor. His earliest memories are of the house he lived in until just a couple years ago when his parents retired back to Olympia.
Alan has been working for PLU in computer support since 1995 -- he's now a Senior Technical Support Specialist in our Academic/User Support unit. After graduating from high school, Tacoma Baptist, Alan took in a two-year technician program at ITT in Seattle, then enrolled in PLU after an aunt sent him a newspaper article on the then-new Rieke Science Center. The article featured PLU's computer science & engineering program, which made for love at first sight. Alan entered as a full-time student for a while, later accepted a full-time position in the then-Computer Center, and took classes part-time until finally graduating with a computer engineering degree in 1998.
This interest in computing emerged out of a wide range of activities and interests as a kid. Alan's family had the usual menagerie of pets, including dogs, gerbils, and fish, but none really caught on. He also played volleyball and other sports, and his current interests include robotics and cross-stitching. But it was exposure to the early Radio Shack microcomputers (remember the cassette tape-driven "Trash"-80 series?) and the Apple graphical user interface that drew him into a career in technology. As Alan puts it, he's "been abusing computers ever since."
So, raised in Tacoma, drawn to and graduated from PLU, Alan remains a mainstay here. And we all hope these locations and themes carry through the remaining chapters of "The Story of Alan."