Blaine Garst, a graduate from the Uni High Class of 1974, is a passionate software architect and technologist that developed many of the key innovations that nearly every modern operating system and application is built upon. Garst has always had a knack for languages. His first experience at Uni High was sitting in on a German class where he seamlessly fit in with the rest of the students, and later in his junior year, Garst achieved a Superior Rank in a State Russian Contest. After studying Economics at the U of I for 3 years and earning his Bachelor’s Degree, Garst went on to UCLA where he earned his Master’s in Computer Science.
Garst first became interested in computer science during college since it reminded him of solving puzzles, which he loved to do since he was at a young age. Building off of his talent for languages--only this time in computer programming languages rather than phonetic languages--Garst developed a standardized UNIX system and went to work at NeXT for 6 years before joining Apple for 21 years. Following his time at Apple, Garst then founded the Planet Earth Society where he’s working on his current project which focuses on creating an ethical social network that works to solve prominent security issues in software.
Sources:
The Planet Earth Society. Our Founder.
Personal Interview with Blaine Garst