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Hidden Talents: Paint Supervisor Tom Rush Swaps His Brush for a Computer Mouse after Hours

Paint shop supervisor and self-taught computer enthusiast Tom Rush knows his way around the World Wide Web so well that he's become the "webmeister" for several College departments. He's created and maintains sites for buildings and grounds and the equestrian center, and is working on new sites. One, for the dean of administration's office, will provide online forms for incoming faculty to indicate their housing preferences. He's also developing a site for the Talcott Arboretum and creating an interactive work request form for buildings and grounds.

Rush does these projects on his own time out of pure enjoyment, and his efforts are greatly appreciated by the departments he's helped. C. J. Law, equestrian center program director, credits Rush with giving their program a jump on others by putting MHC's Web site up before almost any other school had one. She says, "We get many calls and emails from prospective students in response to the information in our Web site."

Rush gets on the computer daily after his work shift ends at 3:30 pm. "I'll stay two or three extra hours. The time goes so quickly, it's dark before I know it," he says. "I just love it. I'm from an older generation and what computers can do still fascinates me." He continues to marvel at how computers allow users to get in touch with people anywhere in the world, and at how they are able to download and store much of the world's knowledge.

Rush, who has worked at the College for thirty-eight years, became interested in computers about five years ago. He taught himself computer architecture and applications. He learned to write the Web's HTML code before programs automated coding, and still enjoys manipulating code to make minor changes himself. "I always try to stay sharp mentally; working on the computer is good exercise," he says.

His current personal interest is fractals, visual representations of mathematical patterns. Using different fractal and graphic representation programs, he's creating scenery using random numbers. Rush plans to create his own Web site some day, and hopes to make his fractal work available there. Rush enjoys Web "surfing," looking at sites that interest him, including administrative sites at other colleges and universities.

Rush credits the College and his supervisor, Dave Collette, for encouraging him and providing resources to advance his computer interests. "This is a nice place to work. If they see that you're interested in something, they'll support you in developing it."