Philip Charles Hankins

Philip Charles Hankins Philip Charles Hankins, formerly of Winchester, MA and Austin, TX, a pioneer in the computer services industry, died on September 10 at the age of 75 at his home in Bethesda, MD. As head of the computing department at the MIT instrumentation Laboratory (now Draper Lab), he worked with Dr. Hal Laning in the development of MAC, an algebraic computer language that preceded FORTRAN, as well as writing programs to simulate missile trajectories. He founded Philip Hankins Incorporated (PHI) in 1959, a computer consulting and services company which worked on programming the guidance system for the Apollo project, as well as on many other scientific and commercial projects. The PHI payroll package, developed for banks, was one of the first "off the shelf" computer programs. He trained many computer programmers in the early days of computing and was considered by many to be "the guru of the New England computer industry." He was appointed to the Massachusetts Advisory Commission on Computers and Data Processing by Governor Michael Dukakis and served on the boards of directors of TAD Inc., Cambex Corp., and Wan Laboratories after it acquired PHI in 1968. Philip founded Commercial Information Corp. (CIC) in 1969 to provide "over the wire" accounting services. He moved CIC to Austin, TX in 1980 changing the name to Charter Information Corp. The company later specialized in payroll services. Philip Hankins was born on May 13, 1931 in Plainfield, NJ, the son of Evelyn Call Hankins and Frank W. Hankins. The family later moved to Collegeville, PA where he attended the public schools, graduating from Collegeville-Trappe Junior- Senior High School in 1948. He received a Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University in 1953, served in the U.S. Army in the NIKE missile Division, and received a Master's in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University in 1956. He is survived by his wife of 51 years, Barbara Schickler Hankins, three daughters, Susan Witcraft of Medina, MN, Patricia Hankins of Bethesda, MD and Evelyn Hankins of Burlington, VT (and their husbands); two grandchildren, Anna and Jason Witcraft; and a sister, Elizabeth Wolgast of Berkeley, CA. His brother Ralph predeceased him. In lieu of flowers, memorials are requested to be sent to the Development Office, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853 or your local hospice. A memorial service will be held in Austin, TX in the near future.