Bob Abramms was the projector director for the Population Map. He began the project in the spring of 2001. He had seen various cartogram representations and felt that they lacked the full power that the current map could convey. He networked via the internet with Fred Pearce in the UK for the historical population figures and with Bill Yoder in Arizona for the GIS cartograms of the data that became the thumbnails at the bottom of the map. Paul Breding was the natural choice for the cartography on the main map, as he had done an earlier version. Bob and Denis Wood had previously worked together on Seeing Through Maps. Bob deferred to nearly all of Denis’ concerns, but over-ruled him on selected issues.

Bob Abramms was born June 7, 1949 in Boston MA. His parents, Ruth and Albert, were children of Eastern European Jewish immigrants who all fled persecution in Europe around 1900. So, as a 3rd generation, assimilated Jew growing up in the greater-Boston, MA area (Lynn, then Newton) he had strong progressive roots. His mother’s father was an orphaned handyman who came the USA as a 14-year-old, and repaired cars, delivered fuel oil, re-treaded tires during WW II, and eventually owned and managed both residential and office rental units. Bob’s paternal grandfather was a kosher butcher. Bob’s father was a trial attorney, which accounts for Bob’s feeling that much of his childhood was spent being interrogated on the witness stand. Albert unsuccessfully ran for political office on a number of occasions, and Bob was pressed into service as a poll-worker to campaign on his behalf. Bob has been politically active ever since. See more here on this.

Bob’s mother was a professional free-lance photographer, who later had a 25-year career as a hospital administrator. In her 70’s, Ruth went back to college to study film-making, and has become an award-winning videographer (she shot, produced and directed ODT’s video, MANY WAYS TO SEE THE WORLD The mother-son team flew to Germany in 2001 to film five days of documentary interviews with Dr. Arno Peters in his home in Bremen.

Bob founded ODT Associates as a sole proprietorship in 1977. He also taught Business Administration at the university level for several years at the University of Connecticut and University of New Brunswick (Saint John and Fredericton) and his various professional credentials are noted elsewhere

In 1988, he sold a portion of the company to his colleagues and associates. At that time, ODT, Inc. became an employee-owned Sub-chapter S corporation in the state of Massachusetts. Bob also turned the management of the business over to Howard Bronstein, who has been president and CFO since 1988. With day-to-day affairs being handled by Howard, Bob’s time has been freed up for new product development.

Bob was married to Irene Abramms from 1976 to 1993. He step-parented her two boys since they were 7 and 6 years old. In 1983, with the help of the Massachusetts Department of Social Services, Irene & Bob adopted an 8-year-old girl. Both Bob and Irene took turns as the stay-at-home parent, while the other worked professionally. Bob shares his current home with five adults and one cat. He has been active in community dinners, neighborhood tag sales, as well as competitive and recreational sports including downhill skiing, racing, wolleyball, volleyball, and improvisational dance. He is part of the Dance New England community, and also spends 2-3 months a year "off-the-grid" in a remote Guatemalan village. He has never owned a cell phone nor had an ATM card. Much of his local travel is by bicycle. He does not own a TV.