In the beginning, Mr. Jack Bagchus started Centre Informatique de Montréal with Mr. George Klisivitch. C.I.M. operated as a keypunch data entry company with 2 IBM 029 card punch machines and rented time on keypunch machines Mr. Bagchus could find throughout the city. Keypunch operators were hired on an on-call basis and as work grew, so did the keypunch staff. In the early days of C.I.M., Mr. Bagchus often drove the operators to the rented machines and picked them up later. This was a lot of wear and tear on his family car, a 1965 Chrysler New Yorker. In November 1972, C.I.M. was re-christened Saturnus True Data Services Reg'd, minus Mr. Klisivitch. Mr. Bagchus began to acquire his own keypunch equipment. This required space and electrical capacity. In this photo , taken in 1976, you see our office at suite 202 of 1176 Phillips Place, showing some of our keypunch operators at work. At left you see the boxes of 80-column cards, used for data recording. We later expanded to fill suites 202, 203, and 103 downstairs. The machines in the picture are Decision Data 8010 data recorders and you also see one Univac keypunch machine. In this photo, taken in 1981, you see Jack Bagchus in front of his delivery vehicle - a 1976 Nova hatchback. On this particular day in the summer of 1981, young Willem took the bus and train downtown to see the Manic play soccer at the Olympic Stadium with his dad. That Nova was a beast of a vehicle - it was a production overrun of the 1976 series O.P.P. highway interceptors. That meant a more powerful engine and plenty of power Sweet!

Willem's father often spent Saturday mornings at his desk doing administrative work. Here you see him working on the time sheets and preparing the payroll paperwork. Willem began doing the actual payroll work in 1982 - every Tuesday morning. Have you ever wondered why the Saturnus Internet server is called shamus? In honour of Shamus the Golden Retriever who spent so much time at the office with the family. He would pose for pictures. In reality, Shamus came to the office only twice a week when the whole family was there, as Mrs. Bagchus would come in to help with the administration and accounting. A funny story came of this around 1983: We had many keypunch customers and there were always new contracts to bid on. One of them was a contract for the Quebec government. An official from the department came for a visit to discuss details of the contract. During the conversation, the conversation, the official noticed various dog toys, a bone and assorted other items that belonged to Shamus - although this was one day when Shamus was home. He asked Mr. Bagchus in mid-conversation "Hey, do you have a dog here?" Mr. Bagchus, without skipping a beat, replied "Yeah, every Tuesday and Friday my wife comes in." and quickly resumed the normal conversation. Of course, this didn't sit well with the official who mentioned "I don't like the way you talk about your wife". Mr. Bagchus stopped dead in his tracks and laughed "No, no When she comes in, we bring the dog with us!" They both laughed over it. Mitchell Garvis came to work part time at Saturnus in 1988. He was a long time friend with Willem and he learned all about data conversion and the special techniques Willem had already developed. He worked on and off for Saturnus over the years and he and Willem developed a lasting friendship. Today, Mitch is the MIS director for IGS Security, a customer of Saturnus' Internet services. (see their web site: www.igssecurity.com) Mitch is a great fan of baseball and would often be seen with bat, ball and glove. If there was a chance to play or some empty field, you can be sure Mitch was there. This picture was actually taken to showcase Mitch's dislike for a particular software package, Editexte, due to its overly restrictive nature. Below the frame is the diskette for Editexte, about to be severely punished at the hands of Mitch. The way this picture actually turned out is quite funny and seems to be cause and effect directed towards Willem's sister Aleida Sanderson-Bagchus.

Later in 1988, Saturnus began exhibiting at trade shows and Willem's friends came to help out. Pictured is Neil Rosenberg, and Bruno Majewski, at SIIM 1988 at Place Bonaventure. Saturnus had the corner of a booth with Jupiter Technologies. Neil now works in Toronto in the MIS department of Scotiabank PC banking (at last report), Bruno lives and works in Ottawa.



When Jack Bagchus retired in 1989, Willem bought the company and good ol' 203 became his office. Mr. and Mrs. Bagchus now live in Hamilton, Ontario - Willem bought their house, too! In 1990, Willem required additional help in managing the conversions and consulting workload so Victoria Rosales joined the company, following a brief stint by Beverly Hamilton. Small world story: Beverly Hamilton, who Willem met through other channels, was next door neighbours with Willem's best friend, Stephen Pickford. (see Travel World Radio Show, www.twc.ca ) Vicky stayed with Saturnus for almost two years and did all the data conversions (Willem took over the overly complex ones) and did well at Saturnus.



This is the trade show that Saturnus had its own full booth. Willem is pictured here with two assistants recruited by salesman Martin Reidy. (not pictured) The show was SIIM 1990 at Place Bonaventure.

1991 saw an increase in on-site technical support and Willem is pictured here at Mirabel airport, en route to a Network Server install for Air Charter Systems, a cargo airline. This increase meant that Saturnus needed a new technician. Prosper Banon joined the team in 1991 and he is depicted here readying for a data conversions job. Prosper stayed with Saturnus on and off until 1994 and he now works at TAL Investment Council in the MIS department.



Willem is busy at his desk here in 1991, providing telephone technical support.

One of Prosper's responsibilites was computer repair and maintenance. Here, he is in the lobby of suite 203, readying a computer for delivery. A funny story about the hair: Prosper is a sought-after rock and roll guitarist and played in many bands. His influences are Yngwie Malmsteen among others. Today, Prosper has trimmed his hair and is trying to fit into the corporate mold of TAL (a recent picture is on the Travel World web site - look under Moscow). Willem has since grown his hair, as he has picked up an interest in guitar and drums . And now Willem has longer hair than Prosper. Prosper still has more of it! Popular with the ladies, Prosper was requested very frequently for service and one particular female customer would constantly break her computer and printer on purpose and request Prosper. That's kind of an expensive way to meet people, but it worked for her. Prosper would return with stories of "it was just unplugged" or "the cover was open" .. In a 1993 radio campaign on Q92, morning-show host Aaron Rand would describe the "good folks at Saturnus" with "Ladies, if you like Fabio, you'll LOVE Prosper!" Willem was constantly amused with Prosper's stories of his adventures at places like "Club Extreme" . Ah, Prosper you're remembered with reverence! Helen Kritharis joined Saturnus in 1996 to help out with administration and he also had a fun sense of humour. We often valued level headed people and Helen decided to demonstrate just how level-headed she was Hmm. I think she's acquiring Willem's "talking donkey" sense of humour. Life at Saturnus is anything but boring and the people who have been with us along the way have certainly had their impact.

Here's to all of you as Saturnus celebrates it's 30th!