Published in The Omaha World-Herald, April 20, 1997

Talent for Technology

Independent and persistent, James Foxall loves a challenge. Talent and a ravenous appetite for learning led him to computers.

By Kristi Wright

World-Herald Staff Writer

When Rubik came out with its colorful puzzle cube, James Foxall twisted and turned it for days until he solved it. As a preteen, he studied martial arts, kicking his way to a black belt in karate. Then he quit once he reached the top.

Foxall did the same with flying lessons. His first solo flight symbolized success and he hasn’t been up since.

Foxall, 27, always has sought the ultimate challenge – one that holds his interest and offers limitless possibilities. He finally has found it in computers.

“With computers, everything is constantly changing,” Foxall said. “You are always getting to work on new things. There is always progress. That tends to hold my interest.”

In the seven years since he joined his family’s software company full time, Foxall has redesigned its main software package, showed his products at invitation-only national computer sales conventions, and helped write two books on a programming language.

His work has impressed industry executives and won approval from Bill Gates’ Microsoft.

“He has a lot of potential,” said Cary Prague, who owns Cary Prague Books and Software in Hartford , Conn. Prague said Foxall is one of the best software developers for Microsoft Office compatible products he has encountered in his 20 years in the industry.

Foxall’s most recent project is writing a book for beginning users of Visual Basic 5, Microsoft’s latest version of its all-around programming language.

On the job, Foxall troubleshoots and develops software as vice president of Windows application development for Tigerpaw Software. At night, he pounds out his how-to programs and book prose to the brooding, other-worldly rock of Pink Floyd. He has been working on the book since February. It’s due in May and will be published in August.

Foxall was bumming around Omaha cleaning fish tanks when he decided to enter the family business in 1989. He always had an artistic bent, so he started out designing graphics, stuffing boxes and working in the sales department.

“I was whining the entire time about not having a Windows product,” Foxall said. “It became either put up or shut up. They said, ‘We can’t afford to hire another programmer. Windows knowledge is expensive. You say we need this but we’re not even sure we do. So go do it.’”

Foxall’s father, David, gave him a software package and a computer. Foxall set aside his pastimes – which included playing bass for a local cover band, the Cocktosens – checked out every book he could find on designing Windows-based applications and went to work.

It was a challenge and, of course, Foxall got into it. He spent 14 to 18 hours a day sitting before his computer testing and retesting. After a year, he had the final product: Pursuit, the company’s DOS-based corporate scheduling software package, with a new Windows-based format. Foxall and his father showed it that year at Comdex, a giant technology convention that encompasses most of Las Vegas . There, Foxall attracted the attention of computer industry big-wigs.

A two-minute demonstration of Pursuit piqued Prague ’s interest. He agreed to meet with Foxall after the show. Sitting in front of a laptop in Foxall’s hotel room, the two tested Foxall’s programs.

“Cary was really impressed with my work,” Foxall said. “He would say, ‘How did you do this?’ Then, “How did you do this?’ Then Cary pulled out his brochure and he showed me screen shots of his program and he said, ‘How do you think I made this work? You click here and it does this. How do you think I did that?’ I was like, ‘I would do this and this.’ He was just blow away.

“I was feeling pretty good. This guy who is tops in the industry is quizzing me and I was getting (the answers) right.”

Prague , already author of more than 30 how-to computer books, asked Foxall to help him write an advanced book on Access, the database program Foxall used to create Pursuit. He also hired Foxall to design some programs for his company.

“This young kid had developed a product that was better than the stuff we had built, and we’ve been in the business for years,” Prague said.

“James is patient and friendly. He doesn’t have an ego problem. He can take criticism and learn from it. Then he comes back and does it better.”

And Foxall is full of ideas. One was to develop a software package of help screens. Microsoft tried to develop a similar project, Prague said, but their team of programmers couldn’t do it. After three months of work, Foxall’s version was successful.

And Foxall is not only a computer whiz. He also has business savvy – something essential for success in today’s fast-paced, high-dollar technology trade, Prague said.

Computers first captured Foxall’s interest while he was in grade school. He would sit out recesses to play games on the school’s Apple. Foxall’s parents were early computer buffs. Both eventually quit their corporate jobs to start the computer consulting and software company they own today. They bought the family a Radio Shack TRS-80 and joined a personal computer users club.

“I remember running home after school to play on those things,” Foxall said. “It has a 300 baud modem – so slow – and I would download little BBBs (bulletin board services).”

Foxall still has in storage that old computer with its ancient attachments: an external floppy disc drive and tape player.

Foxall remembers being in awe of people who could program.

“I thought, ‘That is cool! That is power! You make the program do whatever you want. You have control over this thing. You don’t sit and whine about a program that doesn’t do something you want it to do. You write a program that does it.’”

So as he did with many hobbies, he consumed all the information available about computers and learned on his own terms.

“Pretty much everything I’ve ever done has been self-taught,” Foxall said. He likes setting his own pace. He likes choosing his own direction.

“James goes all out in whatever he’s interested in,” said Jayson Goss, who grew up a block away from Foxall in Ralston. “He could master any video game in no time. Solve puzzles and then throw them away. He always competed against himself. Pushed himself.”

Foxall’s mother, Linda, said her son has always been independent – he took suggestions but always made up his own mind.

“But if he’s interested in something, he doesn’t need encouragement. He’s – I don’t want to say obsessive – he’s dedicated.”

Which is why he wasn’t really suited to the rigid confines of the classroom. He decided to graduate from Ralston High School in January 1988, a semester early, opting to work for an architecture firm his final semester instead of attending school. He went to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the fall of 1988 to study architecture.

At UNL, he jointed a fraternity and Air Force ROTC. But he never was in sync with university life. Lecture halls filled with 500 students didn’t fit his learning style. He went home every other weekend to see his girlfriend in Omaha .

After a semester in Lincoln , he moved back to attend the University of Nebraska at Omaha , where he studied aviation. But no academic subject really held his interest. He also took classes at Metro Community College and Bellevue University . He has yet to earn a degree.

“I’m doubting whether I will ever have one, because, for me, it doesn’t justify the time to go back. I’d rather do a new book or do some speaking or whatever. And I’ve never once been asked if I have a degree.”

Bob Benzel, an art teacher who nominated Foxall for one of the Alumni of the Year honors in 1996, said his former student’s self-motivated success at such an early age is a good role model for teens.

Foxall was named Alumni of the Year. He also holds a seat on the Ralston Foundation board, a fund-raising community support organization for the Ralston School District . In that role, Foxall has helped make decisions about purchasing technology and how to apply it in the classroom.

Foxall feels a commitment to the community. A year ago, he and his then-fiancee, Council Bluffs preschool teacher Laura Thrush, considered leaving Omaha to be nearer to the hot spots of computer industry ideas and activity – Silicon Valley in California or Redmond, Wash. , the site of Microsoft’s corporate campus.

Those areas are full of tech-heads who share ideas, interests and intellect to come up with most of today’s cutting-edge technology. In Omaha , Foxall misses participating in that culture.

But he has reasons for staying in Omaha . Foxall and Miss Thrush were married in June. They enjoy hunting for antiques at small-town shops and restoring old furniture. They have fixed up their house near 40^th and Pierce streets. They enjoy baby-sitting for their toddler niece, Amanda.

Once he finishes his book, they plan to travel in their recently purchased motor home. Their first trip will be an overdue honeymoon to Disney World.

“Unless James is forced into downtime, he won’t take any,” his wife said. “We’re hoping that if we go camping out in the middle of nowhere, he will finally relax.”