Val J. Golding founded A.P.P.L.E. in 1978 with the help of Mike Thyng and Bob Huelsdonk at the suggestion of Max Cook, a manager at the Computerland where Val bought his Apple II. Val also wrote for Softdisk, On-three and other technology magazines over the years primarily making his mark in the early years of Apple computing. As the founder, Val has been instrumental in guiding the company to the position it is in now, with production of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine resuming, Val was the Managing Editor of Call-A.P.P.L.E. magazine and also served as the chairman of the board of directors. He passed away at age 77 in July 2008. He is survived by his wife and 2 children.
About this Profile
When I took on this project, I decided that I should put in as much information as I could in order to provide the real spirit in which A.P.P.L.E. was actually invented. In doing this, I started corresponding with Val Golding. Many of the things which he wrote were previously unknown to any except those closest to him.
The founder of A.P.P.L.E. at work
As it is always best to the the history of a company from the person who experienced it, I made the descision to get it from Val and the others who were there during the time in which it existed. Much of the materials within this profile came directly from Val and his friends.
In the words of the Founder:
About A.P.P.L.E.
I started with the acronym and just played around with it until I found something that fit. I was nevery happy with combining “Pugetsound” but I never figured a better word. The “Program Library Exchange” of course, was a natural, because that was what we started out doing. A couple of us, including Mike Thyng and Bob Huelsdonk bought our computers from Max and naturally I was calling him with loads of questions at first, most of which he couldn’t answer.
Bob was pretty savvy, having been in the business (with Honeywell) for quite some time and was able to point me in the right direction for the answers. Max, although a nice guy, was “just” a salesman. Eventually he began calling me (as I started developing some Apple technical expertise) with questions and that was how the A.P.P.L.E. hot line got started.
After the club was formed I gave out my phone number as the hot line number and many times I’d answer it in the middle of the night (like from the east coast, etc.). We separated about 14 or 15 years ago on the best of terms. Usually we have her over for dinner and a movie on Sunday.
The calls I got most often were from somebody who had inadvertantly or otherwise, delected their program (Integer or Applesoft, either one) and I’d talk them through manually resetting their program pointers to recover the program. Todd Rungren, still an active rock star, used to call frequently.
Call -A.P.P.L.E. Vol I, No. 1 was designated as such only after the fact, i.e., when the second issue came out. No. 1 in fact was a form letter mailed to customers of a Federal Way Computerland store as an invitation to form an Apple Computer user group. It seems to me we were just a handful of people and I offered the name and we all informally said “That’s fine with me” or words to the effect. I’m thinking Call -A.P.P.L.E. Vol. 1 No. 1 may have had that at the top of the page already.
I left A.P.P.L.E. in 1984. I was pissed with management which by then had become a corporation with silly rules and useless meetings, etc. I had the opportunity to found a new magazine for kids called “The Apple’s Apprentice,” and so I moved to San Diego to do that but it was never a great success. Then I became editor of an Apple /// magazine out of Ventura, so I moved to the Valley and commuted between there and Ventura, working mostly at home. The /// was a fantastic machine and preceded the PC with many functions such as drag and drop between applications, etc. I researched Apple /// Basic in much the same way I had Applesoft, which was actually its underlying engine. The /// Basic was mostly written by Randy Wigginton who imparted many of its secrets to me.
Their lead programmer left them to work for Apple and the magazine teetered on the brink of extinction. I got a phone call with an offer of a job with Softdisk, an Apple Magazine on disk and so packed my bags again and off to Shreveport, LA for a year. Got into several disputes with the owners (mostly my own fault) and back to Seattle. Kathryn Hallgrimson, who had been assistant editor of Call -A.P.P.L.E. became editor when I left. She and I were very close and when it was determined that Call -A.P.P.L.E. was going to go down the tubes, she called me and asked if I would write for the last issue, which I did.
Where is He Now?
Val unfortunately passed away on 2 July 2008 after a long battle with cancer. His second wife and their 2 daughters were a big part of his putting to paper his stories about his hobby of Cable Cars and a highly acclaimed newsletter for his daughter’s school.
