About Steve Walker
An abandoned Exxon gas station along Rt 97 was located on 3 acres of B2 commercial zoning1, just south of the Post Office.2 And the house, which Oliver Goldsmith had partially repaired, was declared salvageable by William Hood, a skilled local craftsman. The Walker’s purchased an eleven acre parcel3, including all the improvements to the farm property, from Oliver Goldsmith in June 1983, having leased the gas station structure the previous February. “Billy” Hood, his son, Tommy and a partner were hired to fix-up the gas station, turning it into a small, two story office building by April 1983. TIS and its two employees, Steve and Dotty Harrison, quickly moved from Steve’s Shady Lane basement to this new office facility. In the summer and fall of 1983, Billy and crew did major repairs and renovations to the old house on the hill. The Walker’s sold their Shady Lane house and moved into Bloomsburg on October 19, 1983. The first winter was cold (there were no storm windows until January and the original windows hardly kept out the winter winds; the septic system failed just before Christmas and had to be completely replaced. For quite a while it seemed like all of this had been a big mistake.
TIS Growth
In 1993, TIS was asked by the new Clinton Administration to assist in securing the computer complex being built at the White House. When the House of Representatives announced in May 1993 that they were “coming up” on the World Wide Web, the White House went into panic mode. The White House had to be first on the Web but no one there knew how to do it. I offered to setup a temporary WhiteHouse.gov website at TIS in Glenwood on June 1, 1993. It took the White House until January 20, 1995 to move the website to their own facilities. In 1996, TIS was encouraged to take the company public which we did on October 12. Eighteen months later, in April 1998, TIS was acquired by Network Associates for $360M. TIS never took venture capital funding and 60% of the proceeds of the sale went to the employees of the company. Read the Wikipedia entry about Trusted Information Systems __________________________________________ 1. Originally there were 1.5 acres of Commercially zoned land. Oliver Goldsmith asked the county to switch that zoning closer to the Glenwood Post Office. The county granted the second 1.5 acre Commercial zoning and then forgot to cancel the original zoning. If this had not happened in this way, the rest of our story would have a very different ending. 2. See article on moving the Pindell Store across Rt 97 to Glenwood Gardens. 3. From the approximately 600 acre tract that Oliver had purchased from the Graddicks. The remaining land became the basis for the Wellington subdivision. 4. Now the Glenwood Office Park building behind the Children’s Center of Glenwood which had been the Old Glenwood Exxon Station. 5. The fire department said it was probably vandals but no evidence was ever found. 6. See the Pindel Home page.
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In 1983, Steve left the government and started Trusted Information Systems, Inc (TIS), his computer security consulting company, initially located in his home. In 1984, Steve began looking for a place for his company to grow. Harold Ramsburg, a real estate agent and good friend, introduced us to Bloomsburg. The property was part of a large old farm that had been badly neglected by its previous owners, as shown in the photos below.
TIS grew rapidly and plans proceeded for construction of its new office building
