I met Leah on a ski slope a little over 12 years ago. During a lift ride I learned that she was a
new college graduate, had family in and around Newport, and that she didn’t
have a job. My initial impression, which
later grew substantiated, was that she was humble, motivated, hardworking,
positive, active and enjoyed having fun.
I thought about how hard it was to get a day off and figured she might
be someone that could potentially help with that. I invited her to send in a resume and to come
see us at SEA CORP. The interview soon
followed and we signed her up to help us with the ongoing engineering
work. She quickly became embroiled in developing
the designs to put new systems on the submarines. She didn’t have a ton of confidence but she
wasn’t afraid of anything. You could tell her what you needed done and she’d
have her little half smile that was more of a grimace, raise her eyebrows, and
would say a hesitant “OK” and then she’d go back to her desk. When she finished she’d unveil her work
expecting that it was all wrong. She
would be disbelieving when I said that I thought it was great. “It is?” she’d say with a bit of surprise and
would raise her eyebrows.
She was great person to work with. She had a great work ethic and a playful
sense of humor. It was so important to her that she create a positive
atmosphere and to be part of a team. She
didn’t get easily rattled. It almost
felt like she trusted me more than she trusted herself. If I told her that she could do something,
she would believe me and she would do it regardless of how difficult. You could ask her to do something, that
maybe sounded impossible, and she’d just accept it, maybe give you a facial
expression saying “this isn’t going to come out so good” and then she would go
do it.
We went to a ship check near Seattle, WA and she talked me
doing some hiking around the area. It made me more aware of what the area had
to offer and I found more hikes on subsequent trips.
She is the kind of person that makes life enjoyable. The kind that you try to find in the world
and then
