I have been struggling lately with two simple words – “is” and “was.”  You see, a great colleague suddenly and unexpectedly passed away last week. As I talk with people about John Peterson’s death, I find myself saying things like, “John is a great leader and director at DoIT,” and in the middle of the sentence I catch myself and think I should have said, “John was a great leader and director at DoIT.” When I talked with John’s wife, brother and children, I started to say, “I work with John at UW-Madison” and caught myself and said “worked.”

John did many things at UW-Madison.  He started at UW-Madison as the ROTC commander, then as an assistant dean in the Law School and finally as the Director of Systems Engineering and Operations at DoIT.  One of the things he was responsible for was keeping the primary campus data center up and running every minute of every day. He did that job for many years better than virtually any director in any school in the country on a fraction of the budget of most universities. Before coming to Madison he was a navy fighter pilot and the captain of the USS St. Louis.

John ‘s primary impact is not a result of the work he conducted for the university, but rather his work ethic, leadership and human modeling we all observed every day. So many of the people that worked with John will have John around for a long time guiding them and helping them think through the many decisions that they will need to make, both personally and professionally.

John is the epitome of a rugged man and a gentle man in one body. He could trek through the Rocky Mountains for hours in the freezing rain tracking elk or deer and have the time of his life or he could deliver the readings at his church in a tender and calming voice. With a sharp directed look and raised bushy eyebrows he could let a staff member know they made a mistake and two minutes later he could say something that delivered the encouragement needed to succeed the next time.

So is it “is,” or is it “was?”  In so many ways, it will always be “is.”  John Peterson is someone who gave to his family, his community, his church, his country and UW-Madison. The contributions will not stop with his death. It is one of the interesting things about extraordinary people.  Things they do naturally and normally every day tend to live on in those around them.

I had the opportunity to attend UW Law Days yesterday.  It made me realize two things.  First, we deal with legal issues in countless ways in the technology field these days. Second, we are extraordinarily lucky to have the legal staff we have at UW-Madison. Their office must be overwhelmed with work every waking moment, but each time something comes up, they make us feel like we are the only client they have. Hopefully, we each acknowledge the wonderful work that Legal Services provides.

UW-Madison, UW-Milwaukee and UW System Administration did a great job at UW Law Days - if you didn't attend this year, consider attending next year.  It was well worth the investment of time.