Neither did I ever meet Max Hopper, but I did work indirectly for him when he was EVP of IT for Bank of America in 1982. I believe he was hired to transform BofA's archaic IT systems. He was a guru of TPF, which held great promise for improving the automated transaction processing done across the bank's branch network, including their fledgling ATM network. Note the parallels between ATMs and airline kiosks. Max Hopper's legacy should be remembered for a long time! Scott Gillespie
Author and Innovator

I knew Max Hopper quite well. He was a very dedicated executive who always wanted to foster and implement constructive change. In 1966 Max asked me to review his recommendations for the first travel agency "CRS," JICRS (Joint Industry Computerized Reservation System). At that time Max was heading up a multi-carrier committee to develop a workable program. Unfortunately, each airline sought to make its res system dominant; in fact, few members would allow competitors' domination. My comments to Max on JICRS were mostly covering agency-airline relationships. I encouraged him and shortly afterward United decided to abandon its participation in JICRS. That killed prospects for a joint system and precipitated a war between Sabre and Apollo to sign up agency customers. Max assigned me the task of sorting out premier prospects for AA's campaign. AA successfully won that war and the rest is history. In early years, CRSs used slave terminals and imposed no fees other than partial cost of hardware and infrastructure. Getting an agent to sign up was strictly a market share game. Then USG deprived CRSs any option to stack the deck with preferred placement of their owners' schedules. Segment fees followed Max also reviewed my Runzheimer article first published in 1989 proposing a system for self-booking. At his suggestion, we met for breakfast at the DFW Hyatt. Max agreed with my scenario but he said that everything in booking and checkin could be paperless except boarding passes. He said, "Little old ladies will insist on having that piece of paper, even if they don't have a ticket." He also agreed with me that paper tickets would be history. ~ Rolfe Shellenberger

I met Max in '85 or '86 in Dallas then several times in Paris. Then I was in charge of Wagonlit Travel with no presence in the US nor in the UK, but already a leader in Contienetal Europe in the emerging TMC business. Sensing the potential from AA and Sabre to set foot internationally I asked for a meeting. He grasped the opportunity, and delivered a placid smile and an account manager. No small feat considering our lack of visibility then. The relationship was continuously developed and Kathy [Misunas] gave it another boost when Max left. He was definitely the kind of leader who makes things happen. ~ Herve Gourio
fmr CEO Carlson Wagonlit Travel