Christopher Dunn (computer enthusiast)

Christopher Dunn
Born	ca. 1956
Other names	Chris Dunn, Chrisdos
Occupation	Computer technician
Spouse(s)	Pamela Jensen

Christopher Dunn is a computer enthusiast noted for his involvement with CompuServe, and for the first high-profile online courtship leading to marriage in the United States.

Around 1980, Dunn discovered CompuServe, an early online service popular with owners of 8-bit microcomputers. He served as the sysop of CBIG, a special interest group for users of CompuServe's CB Simulator chat service, where he went by the handle "Chrisdos". Dunn was the author of MU, an unofficial menu and mail notification program that ran on CompuServe's DEC PDP servers. (By 1984, it was no longer possible for customers to install and run server-side programs; MU was the sole exception.) In 1985, Dunn authored CBterm/C64, a terminal emulator for the Commodore 64 noted for its ability to directly display CompuServe's RLE graphics.

In 1982, Dunn met Pamela Jensen through the CB Simulator. At the time, the 26-year-old Dunn lived in Queens, where he dialled into CompuServe using a Heathkit CRT terminal and a Teletype Model 33. Jensen, whose handle "Zebra 3" was borrowed from Starsky & Hutch, was 30 years old and working in Chicago as an animal keeper at the Lincoln Park Zoo. The two soon hit it off and began exchanging private messages. They met in person for the first time on April 23, 1982, when Dunn flew to Chicago to attend a house party hosted by Jensen. Both were immediately smitten, and on their next visit, Dunn proposed.

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