Victoria computer pioneer signs off after 50 years

Back in 1974, when personal and workplace computers were emerging and still science fiction for most British Columbians, Ed Life incorporated a company to service and support them.

But at 75, Life is signing off from the company he built and nurtured for so long. This year, Life struck a deal with Matt Van Heyst, an employee for 25 years, to acquire the Tecnet operation, which has more than 70 employees. Life grew up near the Gorge in Saanich, where his father, Neville Life, was a civil engineer who helped build the current Gorge Walkway.

“At that time, there was one computer in Vancouver and one in Victoria. I had all the test and service equipment that could support these two computers that really weren’t doing much … they didn’t have programmers, so effectively they didn’t work.” “It kept us busy for a while, and it got me involved in the fire alarm industry and the computer industry, but there’s no computers … they were still coming.”

When the IBM PC was rolled out in 1980, he said, the government bought a “ton” of them. “They had a 90-day warranty, return to manufacturer and I’m the only guy.”“Business was good,” he said. “Back in the day, you couldn’t buy this equipment just anywhere. You had to know where to buy hard drives, and how to make things work. If you had one of these peripheral devices, you couldn’t get the service. I’d be the guy soldering, putting chips in and generally getting things to work.

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