Remembering Wally F.
Our St. Louis SA community misses our good friend Wally F. He died suddenly of a heart attack on May 12, 2019. Those who attended the SA convention in St. Louis last summer might remember Wally as the M.C. for the convention.
When we first started to plan the 2018 International Convention Wally took the Program chair as he had been to several internationals and loved them. He said yes. He then came up with 150 suggestions for breakout topics! We chose 70 breakouts and Wally got 1-2 speakers for each. He put together the program schedule, patiently doing numerous revisions as the months went by.
A little later, my co-chair had to resign, so I asked Wally if he would be willing to take on that role as well? He said yes. When it came time to put together the 8-page program booklet, Wally volunteered to do that. As we got closer to the convention, it became clear the program chair had to be intimately involved with the hotel meeting rooms, because assignments kept changing. Finally, when our original M.C. bowed out, I asked Wally to be the M.C. for the event. He said yes again. Wally was putting in 40 hours per week to help keep us on track.
Two months after the convention, we wanted to have a get-together for all the people who worked on the convention. Wally who volunteered to host it at his house with his wife Mary. Those of you who came to the convention might remember we passed out a key with the letter “W” on it, which stood for Willingness. For me, it will also remind me of Wally, who was as good an example of willingness as I have ever met. I will miss him dearly.
M.H., Missouri, USA
To a member in Geek Camp
Congrats! on 20 months. Know that you’re just beginning to see Lust Based Decisions (LBDs) and they will be with you most of your life. The further up the road we climb the more beautiful the view but the steeper the drop.
Sometimes we admire the view so much we forget to watch for fallen rocks. When we stub our toe or twist our ankle, we say we’ll be okay. But that’s exactly when we need to stop admiring how far we’ve climbed and pay attention to clearing the debris and surrendering our fatigue so we can get to the next wonderful viewpoint.
K.A., USA
