Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Rosemary & Family, I am so sorry to hear of your loss. Bob was such a terrific person. I had such respect for him, not only as my boss, but as a human being. I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone, and he loved his family so much. I loved his stories about his days as a soccer coach or the time he went to an important meeting and opened his briefcase and found Lego's inside. He was a great boss, and we had such a great team under his leadership. Within our department, there was an attitude of total cooperation. There was never any pettiness or in-fighting within our group because he modeled cooperation and respect. Our mistakes were evaluated in terms of whether or not we had learned from our mistake, which gave each of us the trust and freedom to push the boundaries of our experience. Each of us would stop by his office at the end of the day, just to check in and share our daily triumphs and failures. He would gather our input and offer suggestions. No one ever felt the need to skew the truth or omit information because we knew that he would view every failure as an opportunity for improvement tomorrow. It was the best part of the day. Bob gave me a great opportunity to learn and grow when he hired me. At the time, I had had such limited business experience. So much of what I know today about systems, technology and business in general is a direct result of my experience working for him. I miss those days of teamwork and cooperation; of sharing in the day's successes and failures, and I will miss him.
