Walt - One of a kind

All who knew Walt have fond memories of him as a person but he was also a great teacher, leader and mentor. One of the most important lessons he taught me was “don’t burn any bridges”. I was fortunate to meet Walt very early in my career and so he had a major impact on me. Walt, Bob Flynn and I did the east coast seminar circuit for Cincom in the early days. At that time we didn’t measure travel distance between cities in miles but rather in how many bottles of wine we would consume during the journey. And when we finally got back to Cincinnati it was either a meeting at the Blind Lemon or a party in Mt Adams at Walt’s place. Walt’s place was THE rallying point for every out-of town Cincomer, and most in town Cincomers as well. Who knows how many people were recruited into Cincom because of Walt’s enthusiasm and generosity – everybody wanted to be part of TEAM-MUIR. One of my most remembered trips with Walt was our trip to Europe to “inspect” the European offices at Michael Hunt’s request and then to teach a selling class. Mike Hunt even took us to cities like Rome where there was no Cincom office – thanks Michael!! When Walt left Cincom to go to Teradata in Los Angeles he was kind enough to recruit Dave Clements and then me. The growing Teradata Company needed a rallying point and again all roads led to the Muir house. Sausalito South replaced the Blind Lemon; Manhattan Beach replaced Mt. Adams. Walt never stopped being the leader, the mentor, the friend. Walt and Dave Clements invented a “Partner Program” when Teradata had nothing to sell – but boy did we sell. Walt and Dave recruited top companies in the Partner Program to help us “design” the future of computing. We did the designing at some pretty nice places like Windows-on-the-World in the New York Trade Center. As a sale’s professional Walt was always opening doors. In his life he opened his front door for me many times, he opened his arms, he opened his heart and he opened his wallet. The measure of Walt Muir was his generosity, his caring, and his gentle way. May the Good Lord open the doors of heaven for Walt and reward a man who more than anybody I knew loved his neighbor as himself. Love and goodbye good friend.