Leah the teambuilder

[read this post to see what the memory sharing is all about]

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
to put them nearby in your life so that you simply have more good people around you.  If you get enough people like that you have a wall against those that breed stress, anger, contempt, competition, aggressiveness.  If you are lucky enough to encounter people like that, and they take root, you are richer and immune to disasters and threats from the outside.   She did take root.   At SEA CORP she found someone that got her involved with the soccer league where she met the man, she made many good friend, and became addicted to teambuilding no matter what the event or activity.  She found other people at SEA CORP that would open up to her and then she would open them up to us.  They were people that pretty much were just going to work and doing their job.  They became people that helped to support and create such an enjoyable atmosphere.  She would learn enough to unwrap and unveil people like Christmas presents.   She opened us up to each other and taught us to have fun while we worked.   She eventually moved on from my work team, finding things that better suited her, but never left the family.  

Not only was she a great person, she was a magnet for more.   She made people like her… in both meanings… she made people enjoy her company and she made people emulate her.  She would find out the birth dates for everyone on the team and found it important to make the day a little bit special.   She also liked practical jokes.    She began putting those two things together.  Make your day special by making you the target (beneficiary) of a practical joke.  She was always the team player so she’d build and enlist the full team in her devious plan.  One year, around Christmas time, I came into my office on a Monday morning to find the door closed and a set of thumb tacs and ear plugs affixed to the door.  

It was my birthday and of course my office was filled with balloons.  I worked in those balloons for more than a week.  I had to pop enough to be able to see above them but I left most of them intact.  I had to push them back in as I went in and out of my door but I just worked amongst them.   They would sometimes pop randomly from static electricity build up or something like that.   Eventually I taped tacs to tips of my fingers and popped them.   The office filled with the stale breath of Leah and another half dozen co-conspirators.   For years I would find pieces of balloons that had flown to the far corners during the popping frenzy.   Fond memories and many thanks my friend for being a part of my life, for drawing other awesome people into it, and for opening me and everyone else up a little bit more. 

-Bill Goneau, SEACorp