Many might read the headlines "Plant Incident Kills Prestress Engineering Worker" and think what a shame, that a 40 year old person, would die at work, several hours before lunch, the Tuesday before Christmas. The holidays at this time of year might not all be about Christmas, but for most, it is a time of memories, of nostalgia, and of remembering family and friends in anticipation of getting together.

Today I have lived as many years away from my hometown of Pontiac, IL as I had llived in the town of my birth. Fallling out of touch happens. We get busy, work happens, life happens, and so does death. Those we work with, go to school with, live near, or encounter become part of that tapestry of our llives. A tapestry woven of a strong but beautiful material that reatains it's shape long after time, age, and wear have changed it's form. It has been 2 decades since my graduation from highschool from a small midwest town, where everybody knows your name.

I was too busy trying to survive life and make it in California at the time of my 5, year class reunion. Then I fell into my groove and ambition obscucred my attendance at the 10, 15, and 20 year reunions of my high school. Nothing makes you feel the gravity of your mortality so much as the headlines tying to one of your fallen classmates, who died performing their career. Was I disinterested in my colleagues, or just too busy? Were my priorities on straight? Perhaps I defined too literally my performance in the "survival/providing" space, neglecting my relationships.

I have the fortune of long standing beautiful friends who always manage to stay in touch regardless. We have found ourselves being more true to our selves as time and life goes by, and we make choices that support our values.. and change when we must.

But I digress... back to the story at hand. Who was Bob Fanchi? When I knew him he was a quiet yet kind student in my art class. Did he marry? Did he have children? Did he enjoy his work?

It is that time of year when friends gather in home towns. I will be in Pontiac this weekend. Home of the bad stock car racing movie, "Grandview USA" that for a while taught us a bit about the glamour of the movie industry, even when making a pretty bad movie.

However there is a link between "artists" and "engineers". I believe a good many in my profession are brilliant artists at their lives, their work, and many are artists and musicians, expressing life in the notes, the colors, and the shadows of their lives. Perhaps that is why it was easy to feel comfortable in my industry. In IT it is great to feel needed, to work around others who share your passion for performance, problem solving, and results!

Let me not be too busy in the Type A Personality Work factor to appreciate the time and people that MAKE our environment great!

Bob was a "PreStress Engineer". Something I never heard or thought of before his death two days ago.

An engineer is someone who practices using scientific knowledge to solve practical problems. A "prestressed" engineer is somoene who practices using scientific knowledge to solve practical problems with tension and compressive prestressed concrete. The science in this problem is stretching steel enforcements called tendones to reinforce concrete to be stronger, more affective, and able to stand up to weather, tension and cracking-- basically all the elements of stress and strain that over time, weaken structural integrity.

Prestress tension, pressure and strain, had an entirely different meaning in the IT Corporate Culture. Still we are looking for the best way to regain or retain strength for our structural integrity, but the product has more abstract and human stresses than the more chemical or structural integrity issues of building materials.

When working around predominant conditions it is easy to let experience create assumptions or blind spots. For today, I choose to be awake to the work I do. With a artistic curiousity in those I work with, and the solutions we develop. Surely if we apply the science correctly we get to learn and grow and do new things. I wonder however if we remember our humanity, if even for a moment.. during this holiday season, to reflect in gratitude for the work, the environment, and the people that make our work great. People matter, and our ability to appreciate that is what makes us human. May we manage the dynamics of our human condition as gracefully as the problems we are tasked with solving in our respective career arts

In Memory of Bob Fanchi, Pontiac, IL, died at age 40, before his lunchbreak, on December 19, 2006.

Dawn http://linkedin.com/in/dmular