Chapter Five of Seven

Being There

An Autobiographical Account of My Life and Times at Glasgow EPB

William J. Ray

CHAPTER FIVE 

Although we won many of the battles that sought us out during my time at the EPB, we experienced some gut-wrenching casualties in the process. Some of those consisted of cherished members of the team leaving for other jobs. More casualties came in the form of experienced essential members of the team who chose to retire long before their talent diminished, just due to the stress involved in the EPB world. This challenge will continue to be a problem after I am gone. But, by far, the most crushing loss of members of the team came from a couple of untimely deaths. Jama Young was our first Technical Services Manager. I wanted a small group of folks to create a “skunk works” operation to study evolving technologies and bring the deserving ones into our portfolio of products. Jama was designed for the job. Of all the people I have encountered during my long career, Jama was one of the most brilliant and capable. I fully expected her to take my place when I departed. In an unjust twist of fate, she left this world before that could happen. We think so much of her, that we still honor her by naming the building that holds most of Glasgow’s essential technology after her. The wound left by her passing has never healed.

Janice Crenshaw also left us when we were counting on her the most. Janice was much different than Jama. Janice was not a technical wizard. Rather, Janice was a customer relationship expert. She worked in our lobby, where she waited on, and counseled dozens of customers each day. While anyone can learn to talk to customers and fulfill their wishes, I’ve never seen anyone else with Janice’s capacity to make each of those interactions something that made the customers involved feel loved and respected. We are still trying to get over her loss as well.

Continuing the EPB mission is impossible without finding, hiring, and retaining more team members like those who we lost during my years.