Saturday, July 7, 2018
I have very fond memories of Joe. We came across each other when the various parts of the Mars IT organisation were in the process of being integrated into a single global entity, something that inevitably led to the possibility of ‘winners and losers’ and which could have been very difficult to make happen while maintaining harmony. Joe and I headed up matching parts of the organisation in the US and Europe, although the similarity ended there! At that time I had limited experience of the business of IT, while Joe was in a different league! He had worked with the legendary Grace Hopper in the early days of programming and had personally developed one of the key Assembler commands. Awesome!
So it was with some trepidation that I came over to meet Joe. What did I find? One of the world’s gentlemen, who could not have been more supportive to me in helping to carry out the tricky task of merging our joint teams. We got to know each other well over the following years : I remember well his love of sport, his fierce pride in his naval background and his college at Annapolis that he had attended.
Requiem in pace!
Graham
