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Like Mr. Peabody, the cartoon character whose Wayback Machine whisked him and his pet boy, Sherman, to turning points in history, Rob Kelly keeps popping up at dramatic moments.
Millions of earthlings remember where they were on July 20, 1969. That was when Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. Millions more recall holding their collective breath as NASA tried to rescue the crew of Apollo 13 in April 1970.
Kelly's role? In both cases, his software was integral to the success of the missions.
In the world of sports, Kelly's passion for tennis led him to oversee ball boys and girls at the U.S. Open for 25 years straight, from 1965 to 1990. There, he met one of the most celebrated - and at times notorious - figures in the game: John McEnroe.
But Kelly's story begins in the Ozone Park and Richmond Hill sections of Queens. A talent for math led him to high school at Brooklyn Tech, then one of three magnet schools in New York City, along with Bronx Science and Stuyvesant.
After graduation, he moved five blocks away to what is now known as Polytechnic University. [There] I was a math major, but my real love was computers, said the 59-year-old Saint James resident. That's when computers were just beginning.
After earning his bachelor's degree in 1965, Kelly went to work for Grumman Corp., where he stayed for 31 years.
Here I was, getting out [of school] and knowing a little...