Goodbye, Mr. Simon

Before I get on to the more exciting fun posts I have in my head.  I have to pause to pay a tribute to a colleague and mentor that died this past weekend.  He was only 42.  I only knew Eric professionally.  I can only tell you about what he was to me.

Eric Simon was probably the single most gifted technical mind at Sprint.  I worked with him all of my 10 years although I could never perform at his level.  How things work in a large carrier is a topic so complex the scope of it begins to befuddle the mind.  The number of moving parts is staggering.  Eric built the original Sprint PCS network.  He was there guiding every upgrade, merger, and munge that ever was.  No one could ever keep the whole thing in their head, but I always suspected that perhaps if anyone could, it would be Eric.

Eric’s professional ability has always been my personal Nirvana—my goal, my ideal, and my guiding principle.  I am 10,000 miles away.  I write to you now from my laptop in New Zealand.  I can say with 100% certainty that this message will somehow be transmitted on a network that Eric Simon had built or influenced.  A very large bit of how we communicate today has been helped along by Eric.  I can not think of three other engineers who could fill his shoes.

It is with profound sadness that I say goodbye to such a man.  I will continue to keep Eric’s ability and professionalism as my benchmark for the very best in engineering.  I hope to someday possess half of Eric’s ability.  I know Eric was a husband and father.  I can not offer enough thanks to them for supporting Eric.  I can not possibly offer enough comfort.  I can say that Eric’s work mattered.  It has changed the world for the better.  Goodbye, Mr. Simon.  We will do our best to keep your networks running.