The Marlboro Man

I remember, the computers had gone down and the only two that worked were in his office and in J's who had the office next to his. He looked at me and told me I was going to have the time of my life and chuckled. We had hundreds of alerts going off and only myself and one other person trying to keep up on the computer in the next room. He would pop his head in from time to time just to make sure I hadn't tried to kill myself or worse, smash the computer. He would poke fun at how hard the two of us had to work and usually ended up making us laugh. It made it easier to handle the crisis at hand. He had a certain way about him that let you know he was down to earth and you could always ask him anything. No matter who you were, you respected him and were glad to know him. He always listened to what you had to say and heard you as well. When I first hired in, he made me feel welcome unlike other jobs in the past and since. I was happy to be part of his team and enjoyed the work. The people I worked with were all easy to work with even though it was a job that not many would choose to do. But I'm not here to talk about that.

The first time I was mandated, I was home in bed and the phone rang. It was the lead worker offering overtime. I slept through the call and so did my dogs, Same with the second call from the supervisor. The 3rd call was from Steve stating that I was mandated and required to come to work. The dogs started barking frantically trying to get me up and so I went into work. I told him that he apparently had a voice of authority that even my dogs respected over the phone. He laughed pretty hard. He had a deep gutteral laugh that was a sincere laugh.

I could probably go on with a hundred different anecdotes about Steve but basically what it all comes down to is that he was a good man and I am glad to have known him for the short time I did. He will be missed by all who knew him.

Here's another friends view of him speaking from his heart