Last Wednesday, my good friend and business partner of 40 years passed away from pancreatic cancer. The end came sooner than expected, but at least he is no longer suffering. I will miss him terribly … hell, I already do!

A future blog post will address partnerships. Most of the time I advise against them, as I have seen too many go sour. But when they work, they are absolutely wonderful.

Such was our partnership, and a major reason our consulting firm was so successful.   And so much fun!

Although many of you didn’t know him, here is the eulogy I plan to deliver at his funeral this week. I think it captures the essence of this gentle man.

William “Bill” Kimmel, PE
Kimmel Gerke Associates, Ltd.
Consulting Engineers
1940-2015

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Daryl Gerke, Bill’s friend and business partner for almost 40 years.

When Bill’s daughter asked me to say a few words, I told her it would be a privilege. But when she told me I only had about five minutes, I knew it would be a huge challenge.

You see, I could go on for hours with wonderful stories about Bill… and given the opportunity, probably would. Those of you who do know me know that’s true.

As an aside, Bill and I spent many pleasant hours telling, and then retelling stories… often to the chagrin of our wives. I will miss that.

So what can I say in just a few minutes? As I reflected on this, I was finally able to distill it down to three key points I’d like to share today.

(1) Bill was highly respected

The highest accolade an engineer can give to another engineer is to say, “So and so is a good engineer.” Sometimes for emphasis, one is called a “darn good engineer.” We engineers are such an emotional bunch.

As the emails and phone calls poured in after the news of Bill’s passing, those phrases were repeated many times. Often with examples of how Bill had jumped in to difficult situations… helped out… and even saved their bacon.

Past students lauded his abilities to take complex concepts and make them easy to understand.

Of course, I agree with those sentiments… Working together for 40 years, I know of no better practitioner of the engineering profession.

(2) Bill was extremely gracious

In a business where giant egos sometimes reign, Bill was modest to a fault. When I shared a comment with him several weeks ago that someone had called  him a “rock star”, he chuckled and replied, “Gee,  I just thought I was doing my job.” … Classic Bill.

Bill also willingly shared what he knew. Not only with clients, but with colleagues and even complete strangers.

An e-mail from a professor in the UK told how, in the middle of his battle with cancer, he took the time to discuss the impact of some new standards. It was much appreciated… He was literally known around the world.

A phone call from a vendor told how he took the time at a trade show last fall to talk with the woman’s son about a career in engineering, and how much it meant to both of them… She had only met Bill earlier that day.

(3) Bill was a friend to ALL

I’m biased, of course… What started out as a couple of young engineers collaborating on some moonlighting projects blossomed into a friendship that lasted almost 40 years… Personally, I can think of nobody else who would have been a better friend and a better business partner.

He also leaves behind a multitude of friends in our engineering community… The many emails and phone calls in the past week have constantly expressed this sentiment… About what a good friend he had been, and how much he will be missed.

In closing, I’d like to share one particularly eloquent e-mail I received from one of those friends just after Bill’s passing.

I’m not much of a reader, but one time my Rabbi lent me a book to read. It was by Rabbi Harold S. Kushner, the author of “Why Bad Things Happen to Good People”. I never finished it, but I remember one passage:

As most clergy do, the Rabbi liked to learn about other faiths. He was at some kind of convention or conference, and he heard the Buddhists talking about how you shouldn’t get attached to anyone, because you would only lose them eventually…

Rabbi Kushner disagreed… He said that isn’t living… Rather, we should allow ourselves to love people even though it will be painful when we lose them… That is living.

So I’m doing a little living right now, over Bill.  (Thanks – Jeff Silberberg)

Right now, I think we are ALL doing a little living over Bill… REST IN PEACE, my friend!

Click here to see Bill’s on-line obituary.

P.S. Changes are coming, so check in from time to time. Initial plans are to ramp up JumpToConsulting, and to ramp down Kimmel Gerke Associates. And to spend more time just goofing off – grandkids, reading, writing, traveling, and playing with the dog.

The goal here – helping “newbies” become consultants, and helping “oldies” become better consultants. Like the underlying goal Bill and I always had with our consulting practice – helping engineers become even better engineers!

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In February I shared the sad news that Bill Kimmel, my business partner and good friend of almost 40 years, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. That is the main reason the posts here have been few and far between. Here is an update.

It has been a rough few months. The chemo failed, but it did make him sick. As a result, he ended up in the hospital for a week with complications. This led to hospice care at home which was working  pretty well.

During that time I flew to MN for some visits. We tied up some loose business ends, reminisced, and even laughed a bit as we relived our past consulting adventures (and a few misadventures…)

We decided our business had accomplished the three objectives we had for any project — do some good, have some fun, make some money.

• We’ve solved or prevented hundreds of EMI (electromagnetic interference) problems in a wide range of industries – computers, medical devices, defense (space craft to submarines), vehicles (planes, trains, automobiles – even fire trucks), industrial controls, facilities (including nuclear power plants & oil refineries), and more.
• We’ve trained over 10,000 designers through our public and in-house classes – immensely satisfying in itself.
• We had a great time visiting almost every state and several foreign countries – and we made many friends along the way.
• We both ended up financially set for retirement – even though we’ve remained involved with our little consulting business.

The bottom line — no regrets. Looking back, it has been so much more interesting and satisfying than had we stayed with corporate careers.

While consulting is not for everyone, for us it has been simply great! It is also what keeps me going with the blog — the hope that others may be inspired to do the same.

Last week things took a turn for the worse. Having balance problems, Bill moved to a full care facility as his wife could no longer care for him at home. They had agreed on such a move ahead of time.

Nevertheless it has not been easy for anyone — Bill, his family, his friends, nor his business partner. But for now, he is hanging in there.

The response from our friends/clients/colleagues has been most gratifying. That is a good measure of business success – how much you and your work have been appreciated. I’m sincerely thankful to everyone who has expressed their kind thoughts to both of us.

In closing, my Dad had a sign in his workshop that said “Live, so that when you die, even the undertaker will be sorry.”  As a kid, I found it a little spooky, but at this point in my life and career I fully appreciate the sentiment.

And don’t wait to start living your dream. Later, you want to be able to look back and smile as we are now doing — and perhaps even laugh a bit! 

P.S. ATTN Friends/Clients/Colleagues – Contact Bill at bkimmel@emiguru.com. Due to low energy, he may not reply, but rest assured he enjoys hearing from you. 

© 2015, https:. All rights reserved.

Here is my reply to a question on LinkedIn about motivating professionals.

The more I thought about the question, the more it festered. Is it motivation, or is it manipulation? You decide.

How do you motivate your professional staff? …

How do you motivate a surgeon to perform an operation? How do you motivate an attorney to win a case?  How do you motivate an engineer to solve a problem or design an better product?

The answer – you don’t. Motivation comes from within. Unfortunately, much of what passes for as motivation is really manipulation.

So do you REALLY want to motivate professionals? Here are some thoughts based on almost 50 years as an engineering professional.

–FIRST, pay them what they are worth. Better yet, pay them a bit MORE than the going market.

— SECOND, consider company profit share rather than individual bonuses, which are too often political. After all, company profit is the “bottom line.”

–THIRD, provide good tools to do their jobs. This is an investment,not an expense.

–FOURTH, create a collegial work environment. See the comment on profit share versus individual bonuses.

–FIFTH, ask what you can do to help them, don’t tell them what to do.

Do this, and you’ll have all the motivation you need. And you’ll have motivated professionals flocking to your door wanting to join your organization.

OR, if you are a fellow professional, you can do what we did almost 30 years ago. When my business partner and I finally had enough management manipulation, we started our own professional engineering firm.

Our motivation is solving problems and/or improving things for our clients. That has been more than enough — and it has proven very profitable as well!

So if you too are weary of management manipulation, stick around and explore my blog. We’ll show you one way out by making your own JumpToConsulting.

P.S. Off to visit my good friend and business partner next week. Unfortunately, the chemo didn’t work and the cancer progresses.  But we both agree that we are so very glad we made our JumpToConsulting when we did. Carpe Diem!

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