Columbia Data officials quit to start a firm.

Executives of the bankrupt Columbia, Md., firm, headed by President Robert Cross, said they were resigning to form a new microcomputer company called Chesapeake Data Systems. The new firm will make “Columbia-type products” at an unspecified overseas site, Cross said. Columbia Data Systems, operating under protection of Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code, makes IBM-compatible computers. Replacing the old management is a trustee, Richard Lowry, who said Columbia will continue to make and distribute computers “to keep up with the order backlog.”