From gerry diamond Wed Feb  3 16:14:55 2021
Date: Wed, 3 Feb 2021 16:14:23 -0500
From: gerry.diamond 
(???problems with pics???)


Conceived: Following a minor amount of Internet-based research I have determined
that I was, in all likelihood, conceived on Tuesday, April 16, 1946. I have no
idea at what time exactly. I questioned Siri and Alexa and they could only
speculate broadly on the subject. I do not know if it was a special day in some
way for my parents. Too late to ask them. But I do know that it was Spring in
Montreal and, as luck would have it, it turned out to be a special Spring day
for me.


Born: January 7, 1947 at Montreal?s Jewish General Hospital. It was a Tuesday.
About 350 miles to the south, New York City experienced an epic blizzard with
feet of snow. Later that year there was an even greater blizzard in December,
but I like to think the one that occurred on the day of my birth was more
significant. Nothing else of import occurred on the planet Earth that day, just
my arrival and a pile of snow. I know this because I scoured the Internet and
found nothing. This in itself may have been noteworthy but how can I tell? I am
guessing there have been many, many other uneventful days throughout history. It
is really hard to search for dull days when little happened, you know. I tried
searching online for that, too, and was not well-rewarded. However, just eight
days later, as New Yorkers were finally digging themselves out, my future wife
Sheila was born at the same hospital as was I, somewhere down the same greenish
corridors. But I suppose we were as ships passing in the night, quietly unaware
of one another, not to meet again for about 14 years. And even then it took
another 3 years to come to the realization that we were meant for each other.
Otherwise, we were not considered slow learners.


The story of my life is the story of our lives together, Sheila?s and mine. As
you all know, we met at OHS and began our dedicated collaboration 57 years ago.
If you look at the photograph below (or attached) you will probably say two
things. First, ?Gee, they look good!? And second, ?Gosh, they look happy!? So I
explain. The picture was taken forty years ago?okay, not 40 years ago but
certainly 4 years ago. I don?t have less hair now because I had none then, but
you can?t see that. And yes, we were and have always been very happy together.
We have been a really nice fit. No sarcasm. But to what do we owe this lengthy
liaison? Serendipity, luck, perseverance, compromise, understanding and a love
that seems tenacious as hell. All that.


[IMAGE]


And now for the brief chronology. I graduated McGill with a degree in Genetics.
Then Sheila and I got married and we went out to UBC so that I could study for a
Ph.D. . in Microbial genetics. For reasons too pedestrian to explain, I dropped
out of that program and turned to study education at the young Simon Fraser
University in 1969. With my teaching credentials in hand we moved to Ottawa
where I taught High School Science for eight years. I am sure that there are
people in Ottawa who talk about me the way many of you talk about your teachers
in high school, with a mix of affection and consternation. Champing at the bit
to see the world I left teaching in 1978 and started my lifelong career in the
high tech industry. I joined IBM and spent a number of years working for them in
Ottawa and then Toronto. The lessons I learned at IBM about life and technology
and people were the best.


Armed with new skills and solid experience I left IBM and went to work for a
Canadian high tech conglomerate, starting a spin-off software business for them
in 1987. Shortly thereafter I acquired that business and developed it into a
successful Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) software company. I later sold that
company to Sterling Software of Dallas. Following that I created an
international boutique consulting firm in the same area of EDI. With gigs in
many parts of the world, I enjoyed a number of years working for large
corporations and governments, including the European Union in Brussels.


Pining to get back into software, I started another EDI software company,
developed it and sold it to a Silicon Valley outfit. The rest, from 1996 to 2003
is too arduous to follow a simply narrative. Suffice it to say I was deeply
involved in a string of acquisitions and mergers all starting with the
California company that

acquired mine. And in the process, 22 years ago, Sheila and I moved to Atlanta
from Toronto to better serve my USA-oriented endeavors. By 2003 I decided to set
up my own boutique investment banking enterprise. Over the next 10 years I had
the real excitement of making acquisition and divestiture deals in the software
industry. This was probably the most enjoyable part of my entire career.


In 2012 I fully retired. Now I mainly knit, do macram?, read books about fraternal
triplets and study variations in the Two-Cent Benjamin Franklin stamp. Fine, I
don?t do any of those things. Instead, we have done nothing, zilch, nada for the
past 12 months. But before that we traveled extensively. Like Gabe Barna, I
became a semi-pro photographer. My love of photography started as a teenager but
became a true calling about 15 years ago. Try adventuring through some of the
pictures on my website www.lakestonephotography.com.


Family: Sheila and I have two daughters, both of whom live in Toronto. One is 49
years old and a psychologist while the other is 50 and a career technical expert
(chief software architect) at IBM. Together we have 9 grandchildren ranging in
ages from 17 to 26. Four of them are or will be Waterloo graduates, one is a
teacher, one is a neurosurgeon resident in Toronto and one is a psychology
Masters student at Dalhousie. Two are still trying to figure out life.





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