Michelsen, Neil Franklin (1931-1990)
Michelsen, Neil Franklin (1931-1990)
Neil Franklin Michelsen, an astrologer and founder of Astro Communications Services, was born on May 11, 1931, in Chicago, Illinois. He attended the University of Miami (from which he graduated magnum cum laude in mathematics) and in 1959 went to work for IBM as a systems engineer. Through the 1960s he developed an interest in astrology and in 1971, with a primitive computer set up in his home, he began to create the databases of information from which horoscopes could be constructed. In 1973 he incorporated Astro Computing Services, then headquartered in his home in White Plains, New York.
Michelsen resigned from IBM in 1976 to devote full time to his emerging business. That same year the first of what were to become essential reference books for professional astrologers appeared, a computer-generated ephemeris (charts of the daily position of planets) and table of houses (charts showing the locations of the astrological houses ). As these were expanded through the 1980s and revised by others in the 1990s, they remain popular items in the astrologer's library.
In 1979 Michelsen moved to San Diego and three years later reorganized the company as a California corporation, Astro Communications Services, with ACS Publications as its publication arm. As his work became known, he became the chairman of the National Council for Geocosmic Research and gained international recognition for his service to the astrological community, including his generosity with the profits of ACS to the development of the astrological community as a whole. Following his death on May 15, 1990, the National Council created the Neil Michelsen Memorial Fund to continue a set of projects he had previously funded.
Sources:
Astro Communications Services. http://www.astrocom.com/. May 23, 2000.
Michelsen, Neil F. American Ephemeris for the 20th Century: 1900 to 2000 at Midnight. Rev. ed., San Diego: ASC Publications, 1990.
——. American Ephemeris for the 21st Century. Revised by Rique Pottenger. San Diego: ASC Publications, 1997.