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SAS® USER PROFILE
Name: Marje Fecht
Location: Mississauga,
Ontario, and Cape Coral, Florida
Company: Prowerk Consulting
Ltd (Canada) and Prowerk
Consulting LLC (USA)
SAS® History: I
began using SAS on the mainframe
(MVS) in 1979 during my graduate work at the University
of North Carolina (UNC). The new
79 version of SAS came out over
the summer and as a teaching assistant
starting my master’s degree, I had to learn SAS and create a course
on statistical software. I had never taught before and had dropped
every course in high school and university that involved a presentation,
since I was petrified of speaking in front of people. So, this was
a challenge.
At the encouragement of my major professor (Bill
Powers, now Director of Education
for SAS in San Francisco), I read
the 79 users guide cover to cover
as well as practiced with SPSS
and BMDP, which I had used in undergraduate work. Somehow, by the
start of the fall semester, I was the SAS expert at the university.
And somehow, my preference for SAS apparently came through to the
graduate students that were beginning their research.
During my studies in the PhD program at UNC, I continued using
and teaching SAS. My major professor, Ron Helms, worked closely
with SAS and suggested that I might enjoy teaching courses for
SAS.
In 1984, I began teaching SAS courses as a contractor. Traveling
and meeting SAS users through the US and Canada was a wonderful
experience. In addition to the basics of programming, macro and
SAS/GRAPH®, I enjoyed teaching the early days of the first SAS
applications development software: SAS/AF® (version 5). Coming
from an eduction environment, it was very enlightening to be exposed
to the application of SAS in the diverse industries where I taught.
From 1986 to 2000, I enjoyed working as an instructor
and manager for the Education
division of SAS. You never realize how little you know until you
are around experts!
As a consultant, I now enjoy applying my SAS knowledge to the
real-life challenges in the financial and insurance industries.
Pets: Because
I am allergic to dogs and cats,
we now have 6 lizards! – thanks
to John Amrhein (a SAS instructor)
who told me lizards are great
pets.
Family: My
husband, Robert, has been a SAS
user since 1986. Most recently
he served as conference chair
for SAS Global Forum 2007 in Orlando. I am still trying to encourage
my stepson, Jordan, to learn SAS. Somehow, he is more interested
in lizards.
Sports/Hobbies: Unicycling,
sailing, boating, walking.
Ideal
Weekend: Sunny
and warm – and preferably on the
water.
Favorite Food: As
a vegetarian (since 1981), I love Thai and Italian food. The spicier,
the better.
If I could do anything (besides
being a SAS developer), I would be: That’s
a hard one. I think of SAS as a great way to understand and visualize
information. SAS enables me to work in diverse industries and continually
learn, so I love what I do.
When I am not working with SAS,
I like to: Enjoy the water - on a boat
or beach or kayak.
One thing every SAS
programmer should know: Create maintenance-free,
parameter-driven code! Don’t create
production code that requires constant tweaking and intervention.
See some of the examples in:
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi31/251-31.pdf
http://www2.sas.com/proceedings/sugi29/262-29.pdf |
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