Don Cassel (born April 4, 1942) is the author/coauthor of 60 Canadian college textbooks and was a Humber College professor for 30 years, responsible for developing the college's first Computer Programming curriculum.
Cassel was a Professor of Information Technology at Humber College in Toronto, Ontario from 1968 to 1998. In 1968, after arriving at Humber from IBM, he developed the college's first Computer Programming program, which is still part of the curriculum. During this time he specialized in computer programming and application software courses. He was a founding member of the Information Systems department in 1968 where he was department head for 10 years.
During his tenure at Humber Cassel developed numerous courses and was active in curriculum development for the School of Business and later for the School of Information Technology. He developed one of the first online interactive courses at Humber for Microsoft Access using WebCT. WebCT became a significant tool for developing and delivering distance learning for the college.
Cassel was a computer programmer and system analyst with IBM Canada from 1961 to 1968. He received an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from York University in 1975 and was accepted into the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto for a Master of Education program, completing the first year of the two year program. At this point writing college textbooks began to require his full attention.
In 1972 his first book, Programming Language One, was published by Reston Publishing Company of Reston, Virginia, a subsidiary of Prentice Hall Inc. Thus began a long period of textbook writing for college programs across North America.
