Summary edit

Note about the photo edit

Tony Pflum was co-owner, with Rich Fallon and Dan Watson, of Computer Solutions, Inc., a computer retail store in Dayton Ohio. Tony began his career at Sprague Electric, and later worked for NCR, and then Labtron (which later became KDI Labtron). After Labtron, Tony worked 8 years for Data-Tron, a manufacturers' representative company founded by Howard Lobert and based in Cleveland. He was the southern area representative, and covered southern Ohio and Kentucky. Some of the products he represented were Documation (punched card readers), Facit (punched paper tape), Penril (Modems), TEC Teleray, Xebec (tape and disk systems), Zilog, and later DEC (Decwriter).

Rich Fallon and Dan Watson, former NCR employees, opened their computer retail store in Dayton, Ohio in 1977. The store was originally called Data Domain, and represented products from Apple, Cromemco, and Fortune Systems. When Tony Pflum joined the operation the name was changed from Data Domain to Computer Solutions.

Tony bought a Cromemco Z-2 kit with one floppy disk which he assembled in his kitchen/dining area (much to his wife's chagrin!) Originally he used the Cromemco system to drive printers and CRT terminals at computer shows (such as the annual show held at the University of Dayton). Later he used the Z-2 as a data acquisition system connected to a Newport digital pyrometer and an 8 input multiplexer.

In 1982 Computer Solutions was recognized by Cromemco as an outstanding dealer of their products for five years. As Computer Solutions continued to expand Bob Fortman (a CPA) was brought into the company to run finances, and Tom Magness was brought in to run multiple retail store locations. A second retail store was opened in the Centerville area (a south suburb of Dayton). Tony Pflum was responsible for the service centers in both stores. The company’s name was then changed to Khalix to avoid a name conflict with another company.

In 1984 Tony Pflum purchased the service operations of both stores, and started Professional MicroCare. Professional MicroCare became an authorized service center for Apple, Commodore, Compaq, Epson, HP, IBM, Panasonic, Toshiba, and others. Professional MicroCare had operations in Dayton, Ohio and Covington KY (just over the bridge from downtown Cincinnati) and had 27 employees. They did the service for Dayton Public schools, University of Dayton, and Cincinnati Board of Education and many smaller organizations. As computer networking grew the company expanded into the network business originally with 10Net (a peer-to-peer network), then Novel, and later with Microsoft.

In 1999 Tony Pflum sold the Dayton operations of Professional MicroCare, and in 2007 sold the Cincinnati operations. He kept his Cromemco five-year dealer plaque (awarded in 1982) until 2017, when he returned it to Cromemco for inclusion in their archives.

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