Norman Scharpf
Address
Graphic Communications Association
Alexandria
Virginia
USA
Biography
Norman W. Scharpf - Norman Scharpf, President of Graphic Communications Association, earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. After gaining experience in the public accounting field, he joined IBM where his sales territory included printing firms. His work with one of these firms led to his appointment in 1967 as the first Staff Director of Graphic Communications Association (GCA), then known as the Computer Section of PIA.
The group's efforts in computer composition led rapidly to an interest in generic markup of text databases. Under Mr. Scharpf's leadership, this interest expanded to recommend and support national and international work in development of standard markup approaches that ultimately led to the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). Mr. Scharpf is a PIA Gutenberg Award recipient for his efforts in SGML. Mr. Scharpf now leads an organization of some 300 member firms worldwide covering technological advances in both print media and information technologies.