Graduating senior Michael Pryor '98 said most students recognize his name from the start-up screen on their computers, but "that was all a mistake."
Two students designed the introductory screens for the Class of '99 computer package and Pryor's was rejected -- but his name is the one to appear each time the juniors turn on their Macintoshes.
"They got them jumbled," Pryor said. "They just mixed up the names."
While that attribution was an error, Pryor's many other contributions while at Dartmouth are genuine.
Pryor is a computer science major and member of the Webmaster group, which has designed numerous Internet sites for the College and its professional schools.
"I have been writing the student elections pages ... since they started on the web," Pryor said.
He said he also designed many of the College's on-line surveys and created an internet discussion forum for Tuck Business School that allows its graduates to communicate with current students.
Despite these accomplishments, including the creation of his own web browser for a CS course, Pryor's programming career in Hanover has not been without error.
"I crashed the BlitzMail server once," he said. "Let's just say it was by accident."
Pryor said he knew he wanted to be a CS major freshman year. "I heard Kiewit [Computation Center] jobs paid a lot so I applied knowing nothing about computers," Pryor said. "And they gave me the job."
Pryor said this attractive feature of the field, an abundance of high-paying jobs, was present throughout his Dartmouth career.
Pryor, who received numerous solicitations from corporations, said he will be working for Juno, a free Internet-based e-mail company in New York City, where he interned the summer after his junior year.
His career will begin however, only after he and a high school friend make it back to their hometown of Lancaster, Penn. from Hanover -- on their bikes.
"I thought since I was graduating I should do something momentous," Pryor said, adding he is not an avid bike rider and the choice was purely whimsical.
Pryor said he enjoyed the small town atmosphere of Hanover, and said it would take some time to adjust to the big city life of New York.
Although he thought Dartmouth's location was beneficial, Pryor said its isolation leads some students to forget about the world beyond the rural town.
"We've become ignorant of what's going on outside of Dartmouth," he said.
