Geraldine MacDonald is an American internet and online services pioneer, best known for building and operating the world's largest dial-up network for

America Online AOL (stylized as Aol., formerly a company known as AOL Inc. and originally known as America Online) is an American web portal and online service provider based in New York City. It is a brand marketed by the current incarnation of Yahoo! Inc. ...

supporting over 35 million customers at its peak.

Early life

MacDonald was born in New York City. Her parents were Holocaust survivors who immigrated to the United States during World War II. She attended George Washington High School (Manhattan) and earned a B.A. in psychology from

Harpur College The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public research university with campuses in Binghamton, Vestal, and Johnson City, New York. It is one of the four university centers in the St ...

. She earned a M.S. in computer science from the Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science,

Binghamton University The State University of New York at Binghamton (Binghamton University or SUNY Binghamton) is a public university, public research university with campuses in Binghamton, New York, Binghamton, Vestal, New York, Vestal, and Johnson City, New Yor ...

Career

MacDonald began her career as a programmer for The Equitable Life Assurance Society. She then returned to

and held various positions within the university computing operation, and received promotions to Associate Vice President with responsibility for all academic, research and administrative computing services on campus. MacDonald was actively involved in the connection of university campuses in New York to each other and to other developing portions of the Internet in the United States. She served on the board of NYSERNet, The New York State Education Research Network,

BITNET BITNET was a co-operative U.S. university computer network founded in 1981 by Ira Fuchs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and Greydon Freeman at Yale University. The first network link was between CUNY and Yale. The name BITNET original ...

and CREN, the Corporation for Research and Educational Networking.

Awards and honors

MacDonald was named one of the "Top 25 Unsung Heroes of the Net" in 1999 by Inter@ctive Week, a Ziff Davis publication. In 2002, MacDonald received the

ACM ACM or A.C.M. may refer to: Aviation * AGM-129 ACM, 1990–2012 USAF cruise missile * Air chief marshal * Air combat manoeuvring or dogfighting * Air cycle machine * Arica Airport (Colombia) (IATA: ACM), in Arica, Amazonas, Colombia Computing * ...

Special Interest Group on University and College Computing Services ACM SIGUCCS Hall of Fame Award. In 2014, MacDonald received the Glenn G. Bartle Distinguished Alumnus Award from

for her work in internet technology. MacDonald was honored with a Doctor of Letters degree by Binghamton University at commencement ceremonies on May 19, 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:MacDonald, Geraldine Year of birth missing (living people) Living people AOL people Harpur College alumni People from Binghamton, New York