Les had a profound effect on the industry. Even though he entered the systems field well before computers were introduced, his concepts on systems and procedures greatly influenced how companies developed systems, and directly impacted how software is developed, even to this day. During his career, he wrote 21 books on information systems related topics, and gave countless lectures, workshops, and seminars on systems to literally thousands of professionals around the world.

Les graduated from the University of California in Berkeley in 1931 with a Journalism degree, and as Les told me, "Just in time for the depression." Consequently, employment in the news industry was hard to come by. He took several odd jobs until he found a niche at writing theatre plays, from which he could draw upon his writing skills. When World War II broke out, Les took a job in a Midwest aircraft assembly plant where he was asked to proceduralize aircraft manufacturing, thereby expediting the development and delivery of planes to the war front. Drawing from his playwright experiences, Les developed the "Playscript" procedure writing technique which involved "Actors and Actions", for example:

SOURCE: The New Playscript Procedure by Les Matthies, © 1961.

Les had specific rules for writing the "Actions" involving the use of verbs and nouns, as well as "if" statements. Because "Playscript" was such an effective technique for writing manual procedures, it was extensively used and became well known in the business world. So much so, that it caught the attention of Grace Hopper, the grand lady of software, later known as "Admiral Grace." Back in the 1950's, Grace was looking for an easier way to write programs, other than in assembler code or machine language. Using Les' "Playscript" technique, she developed Business Compiler Zero (B0) which ultimately became the COBOL programming language, the first procedural programming language (3rd Generation Language or 3GL). Grace simply replaced Les' "Actors" with the computer and devised a scheme for verbs and nouns based on "Playscript". In actuality, there is little difference between a manual "Playscript" procedure and a COBOL program, only the "Actors" were different. This work ultimately influenced every other procedural language that followed, including FORTRAN, BASIC, PASCAL, ADA, C, and JAVA. Thereby we see the effect of Les' work on the computing field.

Les made other important contributions to systems theory, but "Playscript" stands out in my mind as the technique that influenced millions of people both directly and indirectly. He lectured on systems almost up to the end and was always a champion of pragmatic business solutions as opposed to elegant technology. One of Les' favorite stories he liked to use to explain the problems with technology involved a little old lady who received a computer generated bill that read...

The little old lady thought it was just a mistake and threw the bill away. A month later, she received another bill...

The tone of this second notice concerned the little old lady and, in order to pacify the company, she wrote a check to them for the amount of $0.00. She thought, "Great, this will solve the problem and get them off of my back."

A month later she received another computer generated bill from the company that read:

I can still hear Les snicker about this joke. As a person, Les was a kind and gentle man who would go out of his way to help another. He wasn't of the go-go PC generation. Guys like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs wouldn't have understood his ideas, or appreciated his charm. Les passed away on December 31st of last year which seems somewhat fitting, for he was definitely a man of the 20th century, not the 21st. Above all else, Les preached that "Systems are for people; Don't forget the people!"    We won't Les, and I for one will not forget you.

Keep the Faith!