I'm not a person who believes that a person pulls themselves up by their bootstraps all by themselves. I belive our lives are built on the foundations of the lives of those who came before us. Our new ideas and inspirations are built on the rubble of older ideas.Granted, many people have made something of themselves largely on their own. Let me be the first to commend them for it.
It is in this spirit that I know I owe many people my graditude and thanks for inspiring me and helping me toward my own goals. Some have lent me a helping hand. Some have served as an inspiration. Some were just there with a smile and a joke. I can never thank all of the people in my life who richly deserve to be thanked. Below is the beginnings of a list of people I feel compelled and honored to publicly thank.
Cindy Jo Kitts |
I've known Cindy since about 1993 or so. We met at UNIVAR/VW&R where we worked together on the same team building the corporate web site. Cindy knows the web business extremely well and does fabulous work. User interfaces, graphics, layouts, etc. She does it all and she does an excellent job at it. But I love her because she is so much fun to work with. She works tirelessly, at a breakneck pace, all the while laughing, teasing, smiling, and joking. I really do miss working with her. Cindy gave me some key guidence with my initial website home page (cir. 2001). Thank you so very much Cindy! |
Nitin Velkur |
Nitin was a contractor at GHC that I had the pleasure to work with on the EWatson project. Nitin is incredibly young. I think I'm older than his father. But Nitin is incredible smart, so very easy to work with, he remains incredibly calm when the rest of us were freaking out. A real professional. And I thought he was a good teacher. Did I mention that he is very young? Nitan moved on to another client. Excuses were given and I think they were just that, excuses. But I can respect anyone's desires to move on after a period of time to a different project, different learning possibilities. But I was bitterly disappointed when Nitan left, because I felt I was just starting to make real progress in my understanding of Pega PRC, when he left. It is always tough to lose a great mentor. I think Nitan leaving also hurt because I was also fond of Nitan like a brother. Nitan. Come back, we miss you! |
Erik C Nielsen |
I've known Erik since about 1992. We met at UNIVAR/VW&R where he was a consultant/mentor for those of us learning Lotus Notes/Domino. Erik is responsible for breathing new life and excitement into my career and spinning it off into a new direction. . . toward the web, for which I'm eternally grateful. Erik was, is, and will be a mentor of mine for a long time to come. A total gentleman, highly skilled in all things technological, immensely intelligent, hardworking, thoughtful, patient (except at golf), Erik is a fabulous teacher. I probably will never get to work with Erik again, much to my disappointment. Erik is on the fast track to success (he is now a CIO, which he richly deserves and earned). |
Jeff Strickler |
I've only known Jeff since 2003. He was a project leader/manager at Group Health Cooperative and was responsible for leading the provider portal web project, which include a web referral entry application, for which I wrote the interface to the backend. The thing that most struck me about Jeff, was here was this really, really, young guy; extremely bright. Albeit he was so young, when asking the project management questions, they weren't put in the smoothest of terms, nonetheless, he at least asked the right questions and was able to dig out the answers he needed. He also had the amazing knack for knowing when an email would suffice to get the answers he needed, or when only a personal visit to your desk would get the job done. He was one of the best project managers with whom I've ever worked. He totally blew me away. I picked up a passion for Linux about the same time I met Jeff, and he was there with the experience and ability to make recommendations and graciously gave advice where and when I asked. I will always be fond of Jeff, as he inspired me, and gave me the confidence to tackle something which seemed impossibly insurmountable. Jeff you were there when returning to COBOL looked like the only thing left to my career, to encourage me and give me hope. I'm disappointed that he was given no future at Group Health, their loss not his, and that I don't see him as often as I would like. I keep hoping that I'll have a chance to work with Jeff again in the future. |
Kirk Kriskovich |
I've known Kirk since about 1997 or so. We met at NextLink Communications where we were both contractors, working together on the same team building and testing their corporate web site. Opinionated, outspoken, and brash are words that come to mind when thinking about Kirk. I didn't much like him when I first met him. But as I came to know the person, I really liked who and what he is. Kirk is like a brother to me now. After one of the frequent family dinners he has shared with my family, we, the family, not just me, spontaneously decided to adopt him as our "Uncle Kirk". This shows you that the rest of the family is as fond of him as I am. Kirk does some fabulous graphic/computer art stuff. We try to share our technology knowledge, as I'm weak where he has talent, and he's weak in areas where I have experience. Kirk is another one of these persons who seems to have boundless energy and is very animated. He inspires me and after some of our conversations I typically spend several days in a frenetic state of inspiration and eruption of ideas and possibilities. Kirk and I should probably go into business together, only the future will tell. |