Peter Crouch joined the D and R Laboratory of International Nickel in Birmingham in 1968 to work on the technology of nickel electrodeposition after completing his PhD in inorganic coordination chemistry at the University of Reading. His involvement with computing began in the late 1970s when he started using early personal computers for the statistical analysis of his experimental results. Initially he used BASIC and Pascal but in the early 1980s he began to use Fortran. In 1985 he was offered the opportunity to work full time as a software developer on the computer aided design and manufacturing systems of Inco Engineered Products. He worked as a Fortran, and later C, programmer until 2001. In the early 1990s he joined the BCS and later the Birmingham Branch committee. He became Chairman of the branch in 1997.In the late 1990s he had joined the Fortran SG committee as Web Editor and became Chairman in 2002, within days of stepping down as Chairman of the Birmingham Branch!