The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

PRESCOTT - In a tradition beginning with his Oregon pioneer ancestors, Prescott businessman Larry Pitcher has taken to pioneering in cyberspace.

He and his family have settled down on a small farm just outside Prescott, but not to work the land - Pitcher is a website developer.

"He's very knowledgeable and creative," says Dayton's Judith Henderson, whose website www.chefjudithhenderson.com is hosted by Pitcher. "But he's also a country boy at heart, so he's laidback and not intimidating like some."

While his neighbors labor under sun and rain to harvest the fruits of the earth, Pitcher has anchored himself to his cozy little home office in the warm glow of his PC monitor.

His services reach customers in the Touchet Valley and extend far beyond to clients around the country.

The only thing he and his ancestors have in common is hours spent on the job. It takes many, many hours to build and maintain websites for his long list of customers.

And being a webmaster isn't Pitcher's only job description. He is also experienced in helping folks set up and maintain computer networks, providing personal computer support and - something most people may not have even heard of - Plone consulting and development.

Actually Plone is the free, open-source content management system Pitcher uses in website development.

Pitcher did his homework, he says, and Plone offers his clients just what he was looking for: "Your potential customers will find your site easily with the excellent search engine results that are possible by using Plone, Pitcher wrote on his own website www.catapultsolutions.net. "They'll find your site a pleasure to read and navigate because of Plone's adherence to web standards and our experience in building user-friendly web pages."

Pitcher, who has lived in Prescott with his wife and their three homeschooled children for about seven years now, says what he likes to offer to computer and Internet users is "the kind of personalized service that's hard to find in the fast-paced world of web development and IT support."

His background includes three years as a computer programmer in the Air Force followed by many years of outdoor work like construction.

"After the Air Force I decided I'd had enough of desk jobs," he says.

But after living 13 years in LeGrande, Pitcher moved to Walla Walla to attend WWCC. He took computer networking classes and landed a job at Baker Boyer National Bank managing the company's website and Internet banking. He worked there for three years.

Through his many careers, Pitcher has learned that communication is key to achieving project success, so his rule is to always stay in contact with clients during project work.

"We like to meet face-toface whenever possible, but when schedules or distance prevent that, we use phone, email, chat, video conference, or screen-sharing technologies to make sure that we stay connected," he says.

Pitcher's web projects are built to be: easy to edit, easy to read, easy to navigate and easy to find, using search engines.

"You want the world to know about your business or organization - we introduce them to you," he says.

Henderson has been more than happy with Pitcher's work on her Internet "welcome."

"Here's what he's best at," Henderson said. "I had an idea of what I wanted to do, and he walked me through every step. He kept me involved in the process, teaching me a little bit at a time, which you have to do because the website it going to be representing you."

Pitcher took Henderson's webpage, which she'd already developed, and expanded it into several pages, and added special features like her webcast, photos and more.

"It took about 12 weeks before anybody was looking at it," she said. "But now it's getting hit constantly."

Catapult Solutions, named for Pitcher's son's fascination with medieval weaponry and Pitcher's desire to "launch people's businesses onto the Internet," has worked with many clients such as the Times' own Chef Judith Henderson, Stone Creek Manor Bed and Breakfast and the Oregon State Library Information System.

To see Pitcher's portfolio of website created or maintained, visit his own website at www.catapultsolutions.net.