Bill,
Well you are now responsible for me posting my first time to a blog! Sorry this is a bit late but even though I have retired, I am not getting better about responding to my email.
I know it is hard for many of us to believe you are retiring. I am sure it is hard for you too. From experience, I can tell you it is a great decision, one that will lead to good things for you.
I will keep my comments short and simple. From the day you started working for us on the ESP team, I was always impressed with you. You always stayed focused on doing what was right for "the field". I was continually astounded at how responsive you were to changes, fixes, updates improvements and creative ways to keep things moving forward. I think the best way to say it is this, "you always made the team look good".
HP will miss you, your HP friends will miss you. One of the requirements of retirement is that you have to stay in touch. I hope you will.
You gave us your best and I wish you all the best.
Steve Baker
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Billy,
What can I say...except that you better keep in touch. You've been a main stay of my HP life for over 10 years and your going to be missed. I remember being so scared of you at first...always so grouchy and you talked way above my knowledge. Thankfully I learned that you really aren't grouchy and you'd spend hours explaining and teaching me the most basic of concepts. I enjoyed those early morning conversations. It's truly a loss to HP. Enjoy all your new found time.
Does anyone understand what Bill just said?
Regards,
Trace
What can I say...except that you better keep in touch. You've been a main stay of my HP life for over 10 years and your going to be missed. I remember being so scared of you at first...always so grouchy and you talked way above my knowledge. Thankfully I learned that you really aren't grouchy and you'd spend hours explaining and teaching me the most basic of concepts. I enjoyed those early morning conversations. It's truly a loss to HP. Enjoy all your new found time.
Does anyone understand what Bill just said?
Regards,
Trace
Radar's going home
Hey Bill...It's all been said. I wish you the best and thank you for everything. Let us know that there really is life out there outside of HP!
Stay in touch,
Nancy
Stay in touch,
Nancy
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Happy new life!!
Hi Bill,
I never thought I would see the day -- you retiring. I enjoyed working with you on the ESP team so long ago. To me you were Mr. ESP!!!
I wish you all the best in your new life. If you work with a new company they will be very fortunate to have you.
Good luck!
Charlene
I never thought I would see the day -- you retiring. I enjoyed working with you on the ESP team so long ago. To me you were Mr. ESP!!!
I wish you all the best in your new life. If you work with a new company they will be very fortunate to have you.
Good luck!
Charlene
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Bye and Good Luck!!
Bill,
I'm so glad I had an opportunity to work with you -- your expertise, dedication, and perseverance was amazing. And, I appreciate the help you have extended to me when I needed questions answered, things explained, and action taken.
Best of luck to you in whatever new adventure lies ahead. I know you'll do great things!
Elaine
I'm so glad I had an opportunity to work with you -- your expertise, dedication, and perseverance was amazing. And, I appreciate the help you have extended to me when I needed questions answered, things explained, and action taken.
Best of luck to you in whatever new adventure lies ahead. I know you'll do great things!
Elaine
What Can I Say?
Bill leaving???!! I knew it was a possibility but I never thought in reality it would come to pass... Maybe it's more like I HOPED it would never come to pass.
What a loss to HP!
Bill, getting to know you has been a joy for me. As I read through these posts, it's obvious that I'm not the only one who realizes you are brilliant. Your technical skills and creativity are evident within moments of starting a conversation with you. You are also truly inventive and have your customer in mind with everything you do. And on top of that, you have a crazy work ethic! (I'm not sure I'd be open to daily meetings at 4AM with people in India...!)
In reading these posts, it was also clear to me that I'm not the only one who has come to really cherish you as a friend. Guess I'm not the only one who has chipped away at your hard candy shell to find a very kind, genuine and sincere person beneath the layer of genius. : )
You will be missed more than words can say. It has been a pleasure to work with you these past few years and I wish you all the best in whatever comes next. I truly hope you enjoy the time with your family. I know it will be a relief to live in just one city for a change! So enjoy this time and know that your impact will be felt here for a long time to come.
And please stay in touch so we know what life is like "outside the walls". : )
Take care and may God bless you in all that you do.
Chris
What a loss to HP!
Bill, getting to know you has been a joy for me. As I read through these posts, it's obvious that I'm not the only one who realizes you are brilliant. Your technical skills and creativity are evident within moments of starting a conversation with you. You are also truly inventive and have your customer in mind with everything you do. And on top of that, you have a crazy work ethic! (I'm not sure I'd be open to daily meetings at 4AM with people in India...!)
In reading these posts, it was also clear to me that I'm not the only one who has come to really cherish you as a friend. Guess I'm not the only one who has chipped away at your hard candy shell to find a very kind, genuine and sincere person beneath the layer of genius. : )
You will be missed more than words can say. It has been a pleasure to work with you these past few years and I wish you all the best in whatever comes next. I truly hope you enjoy the time with your family. I know it will be a relief to live in just one city for a change! So enjoy this time and know that your impact will be felt here for a long time to come.
And please stay in touch so we know what life is like "outside the walls". : )
Take care and may God bless you in all that you do.
Chris
My Mentor.. My Friend
Bill,
You already know how much I'm going to MISS you! You have been a Great mentor. For all those reading this, it was Bill's idea that I should become an employee instead of an "alien" contractor. And he's been here for me every day since, even when he's "on vacation". I'll always be grateful for the knowledge and patience he's shown this "junior geek".
Now get out there, Bill. Start something up and Hire me!!!!
And DO keep in touch, because as much as I will miss your techie side, I would miss your friendship a million times more!
Love, Monica
You already know how much I'm going to MISS you! You have been a Great mentor. For all those reading this, it was Bill's idea that I should become an employee instead of an "alien" contractor. And he's been here for me every day since, even when he's "on vacation". I'll always be grateful for the knowledge and patience he's shown this "junior geek".
Now get out there, Bill. Start something up and Hire me!!!!
And DO keep in touch, because as much as I will miss your techie side, I would miss your friendship a million times more!
Love, Monica
Just remember....there *is* life after HP!
Bill,
I can't believe you're making this jump....but I assure you that you will be very happy with the results! I know it was a heart-wrenching decision to make, and that you have to have a bit of faith that "what will come" is going to be a positive experience. I'm sure it will be.
What I remember, and cherish, about Bill was his (as we called it) maniacal focus on end-user experience. Back in the early days of the web (circa 1995), Bill was always looking for the better ways to enable our salesforce to more easily locate relevant, useful information to help them sell more effectively. That's what all those revs of ESP (version 2.2, 2.4, and the never-saw-the-light-of-day version 3.0) were all about. I think that focus was one of the main reasons ESP was so successful throughout it's long life.
I joined the ESP team in 1995, coming from the field, and recruited by Russell and Steve to join the team. Shortly after I got there, Russell bailed and I kind-of, sort-of inherited a lot of the ESP stuff. Those years, from about 1995 to about 2000 were one of the highlights of my years at HP. It was a wonderful group of people, dedicated to their task of making ESP the best it could be.
And Bill contributed mightily to that task. He was the fastest prototyper I knew. You could muse one morning "I wonder what it would look like if we did this....", and that afternoon, Bill would say "take a look at this...". But, even better, he was always open to new ideas, suggestions on ways to make things better, and never got caught up in an unwillingness to change.
As I think about those years, here's some of the things that pop into my mind:
Good luck in your new adventures...and keep in touch.
All the best,
Bob
I can't believe you're making this jump....but I assure you that you will be very happy with the results! I know it was a heart-wrenching decision to make, and that you have to have a bit of faith that "what will come" is going to be a positive experience. I'm sure it will be.
What I remember, and cherish, about Bill was his (as we called it) maniacal focus on end-user experience. Back in the early days of the web (circa 1995), Bill was always looking for the better ways to enable our salesforce to more easily locate relevant, useful information to help them sell more effectively. That's what all those revs of ESP (version 2.2, 2.4, and the never-saw-the-light-of-day version 3.0) were all about. I think that focus was one of the main reasons ESP was so successful throughout it's long life.
I joined the ESP team in 1995, coming from the field, and recruited by Russell and Steve to join the team. Shortly after I got there, Russell bailed and I kind-of, sort-of inherited a lot of the ESP stuff. Those years, from about 1995 to about 2000 were one of the highlights of my years at HP. It was a wonderful group of people, dedicated to their task of making ESP the best it could be.
And Bill contributed mightily to that task. He was the fastest prototyper I knew. You could muse one morning "I wonder what it would look like if we did this....", and that afternoon, Bill would say "take a look at this...". But, even better, he was always open to new ideas, suggestions on ways to make things better, and never got caught up in an unwillingness to change.
As I think about those years, here's some of the things that pop into my mind:
- Those long, involved, design meeting to define what ESP 2.4 was going to be. The major jump for 2.4 (if I remember correctly) was that it was going to integrate Computer News Online directly into the application. We had to not only figure out how to improve the "basic" ESP, but also had to design and implement an online publishing and archiving policy that would allow us to maintain CNO.
- Moving the ESP server out of a closet and into a real, live datacenter. The mark of a REAL application!
- Moving that same server (or was it a newer one by then?) from Cupertino to Colorado over a weekend. What we did to make sure the salesforce wouldn't be without their ESP!
- Those long, interesting meetings with Steven and Ken from Sierra Vista Research designing the next generation ESP, aka ESP 3.0. I found out more about ontologies and taxonomies that I ever thought I wanted to know!
- Going through the agony of stopping development of ESP 2.4 in favor of rolling out ESP 3.0 through ShortCycles....only to see ShortCycles go belly up in the dot-com bust in about 2000. We got cool T-shirts, though...
- THEN...trying to kick start ESP 2.4 development, while deciding what to do for the next gen system, which ended up as Project Phoenix (get it? Rising from the ashes?) in 2001.
- THEN...having Carly decide to merge with Compaq in late 2001, and putting Phoenix into an unknown state.
- THEN...merging with Compaq in 2002 and reorganizing and splitting up the ESP team for "efficiency and accountability".
- THEN...breaking us, and ESP, up even further with The Source, and the eventual death of ESP
Good luck in your new adventures...and keep in touch.
All the best,
Bob
Best of luck, Bill - Your gain, HP's loss
Bill,
Like Peggy, when I first started working with you, I was definitely intimidated and knew you were a techy of the realm I couldn't even try to understand. But then I learned that your bark was definitely worse than your bite and you were so patient and helpful to me. When I started as Knowledge Manage for ESP, you were the main person I went to for advice and always felt like you would be there to help me through. I loved being on that team more than any other group at HP. I knew we would all support one another and all cared about success for the sales force. Your passion for all things important to you was palpable - from getting the programming done right to talking about your son. I wish you the best of everything as you move to this next step of life : the "Post-HP" step. I had been offered the early retirement as well and am somewhat jealous of your move. But we'll hold donw the fort back at HP and will always enjoy the memories of Bill Gray on the ESp and Next Gen team!
Ann
Like Peggy, when I first started working with you, I was definitely intimidated and knew you were a techy of the realm I couldn't even try to understand. But then I learned that your bark was definitely worse than your bite and you were so patient and helpful to me. When I started as Knowledge Manage for ESP, you were the main person I went to for advice and always felt like you would be there to help me through. I loved being on that team more than any other group at HP. I knew we would all support one another and all cared about success for the sales force. Your passion for all things important to you was palpable - from getting the programming done right to talking about your son. I wish you the best of everything as you move to this next step of life : the "Post-HP" step. I had been offered the early retirement as well and am somewhat jealous of your move. But we'll hold donw the fort back at HP and will always enjoy the memories of Bill Gray on the ESp and Next Gen team!
Ann
Oh No .. Mr. Bill is retiring
So the time is really here .. I met Mr. Bill a long, long time ago in the Big Apple. He was in one of my Verity classes. As I told all my students, he was now one of "my kids", the K2 users. Then again years later here again at HP we cross paths. I don't know of a smarter, funner person. I will miss our chats.
Bill,
I will miss your advice, techie talk .. and straight shooting. Keep in touch and I hope someday we can develop the ultimate, enterprise search strategy and implement the "Documents find you .. not you find the Documents"
Take a rest, and enjoy your family, the coffee, and by all means life in general.
Keep safe and keep smiling.
Deb Smigocki
Bill,
I will miss your advice, techie talk .. and straight shooting. Keep in touch and I hope someday we can develop the ultimate, enterprise search strategy and implement the "Documents find you .. not you find the Documents"
Take a rest, and enjoy your family, the coffee, and by all means life in general.
Keep safe and keep smiling.
Deb Smigocki
Riding off into the sunset .... NOT!
Bill:
Watching, digesting, understanding, arguing, not understanding, promoting, leveraging, growing are all descriptors of my association with you. You tested almost everything at almost every turn, and adopted and adapted inside and outside the box of possibility for many challenges presented to you.
I learned a lot, cursed a lot, and enjoyed a lot of the time working with you. Passion was never in doubt. And on either side of a dialog, I always knew I had to bring an "A" game.
Thanks for the challenge, teaching, and occasional acknowledgement of work well done. I wish you the best where ever the road ahead takes you. I am sure it will be a path of creativity, certainty, and discovery for you and all of those around you. I am sure they will enjoy the journey.
Regards,
Don
Watching, digesting, understanding, arguing, not understanding, promoting, leveraging, growing are all descriptors of my association with you. You tested almost everything at almost every turn, and adopted and adapted inside and outside the box of possibility for many challenges presented to you.
I learned a lot, cursed a lot, and enjoyed a lot of the time working with you. Passion was never in doubt. And on either side of a dialog, I always knew I had to bring an "A" game.
Thanks for the challenge, teaching, and occasional acknowledgement of work well done. I wish you the best where ever the road ahead takes you. I am sure it will be a path of creativity, certainty, and discovery for you and all of those around you. I am sure they will enjoy the journey.
Regards,
Don
Sunday, May 27, 2007
There goes another of the best…
I do have to admit when I first joined the ESP team I was a bit intimidated by “Bill”; Bill who was so good at his job that management allowed him to attend staff meetings from his desk rather than join everyone else in the conference room. The intimidation changed to full-on admiration and respect in a big way. I admired your intelligence/brilliance, your vision, your earnestness in trying to “do good things” for HP. I admired your perseverance through some challenging times. I was happy to see that you were able to stay with it during some tough changes until you got the offer that was “too good to pass up”.
One of my most vivid memories of your intolerance of BS was when ESP was going through a due diligence effort around choosing a vendor for the next-generation ESP. (I can’t remember if that was the Next-Gen project or the No Name project, or maybe even the Phoenix project.) We were compelled to consider Oracle, given that Oracle already had a large presence in Sales Ops. The sales rep started off her presentation by showing us a picture of Ellison and Carly shaking hands, and telling us about what buddies they were, blah blah. This was supposed to impress us! Hah! The session didn’t go so well after that…
(I still have part of the final vendor selection presentation that Accenture completed for us, which didn’t select Oracle. It included a picture of Bob Crum and Carly – shaking hands. It was perfect.)
I wish you all the best, and then some, with what you decide to do next. I hope that includes an enviable work-life balance. Please stay in touch.
Warmly, Peggy
P.S. I’m the keeper of the ESP poster that used to grace Bob’s cube; trying to hang onto little pieces of the good ole days, and memories of a Great Team.
One of my most vivid memories of your intolerance of BS was when ESP was going through a due diligence effort around choosing a vendor for the next-generation ESP. (I can’t remember if that was the Next-Gen project or the No Name project, or maybe even the Phoenix project.) We were compelled to consider Oracle, given that Oracle already had a large presence in Sales Ops. The sales rep started off her presentation by showing us a picture of Ellison and Carly shaking hands, and telling us about what buddies they were, blah blah. This was supposed to impress us! Hah! The session didn’t go so well after that…
(I still have part of the final vendor selection presentation that Accenture completed for us, which didn’t select Oracle. It included a picture of Bob Crum and Carly – shaking hands. It was perfect.)
I wish you all the best, and then some, with what you decide to do next. I hope that includes an enviable work-life balance. Please stay in touch.
Warmly, Peggy
P.S. I’m the keeper of the ESP poster that used to grace Bob’s cube; trying to hang onto little pieces of the good ole days, and memories of a Great Team.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Congratulations!
Hi Bill,
Congratulations on your retirement. It has been 6 years since I took the HP early retirement and I have never regretted it. I really enjoyed working with you and remember the chats we had about family. I don't know if you are planning on getting another job but if so whoever hires you will be fortunate in getting a great person. I really hope you enjoy whatever retirement time you have with your family. Believe me you will be so busy you won't know how you ever worked! May God bless you in this next phase of your life.
Take care,
Vickie Hendricks
Congratulations on your retirement. It has been 6 years since I took the HP early retirement and I have never regretted it. I really enjoyed working with you and remember the chats we had about family. I don't know if you are planning on getting another job but if so whoever hires you will be fortunate in getting a great person. I really hope you enjoy whatever retirement time you have with your family. Believe me you will be so busy you won't know how you ever worked! May God bless you in this next phase of your life.
Take care,
Vickie Hendricks
Congrats & Best Wishes!
It was nice to finally meet you in person. I'm sorry we weren't able to work together more as you have so much knowledge to share. Hope you enjoy this well deserved break in your career. Have fun! Cindy Gerace
Did someone check his ID? He's too young to retire!
Bill,
What are we going to do without our resident expert? You were the one person I could count on to figure out problems no one else could. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Pat
What are we going to do without our resident expert? You were the one person I could count on to figure out problems no one else could. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.
Pat
"Jedi Master? Bill Gray...YOU seek BILL GRAY!" - Yoda
It has been my privilege to work with Bill for about 5 years now, and in that time I have grown as a person, a professional, and a technologist through his influence. Bill's unwavering commitment to customers, tireless work ethic, and keen technological insights have guided the footsteps of the applications we've worked on together past many, many obstacles. Although we have had our differences and spirited discussions, I never once had any doubt that my relationship or friendship with Bill had been damaged. Bill's courage to argue for what he believes is right is one of his greatest strengths.
Bill, no one can do justice to the contributions you've made to this company over your many, many years. First and foremost, thank you for the effort, the sacrifices, and the talent that you allowed us in your time here.
Secondly, I wish you all the best in your retirement, which I'm sure will be little more than a "timeout" between pursuits. The golf course groundskeepers with low supplies of replacement sod will be especially glad to see you rejoin the workforce. That said, I hope you get some time to relax and recharge.
Thirdly, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors, and I hope that you will always keep in touch. Any company that lands you would be wise to take full advantage of the knowledge and skill that you offer.
Finally, I will personally miss your talents and your friendship, as I know others will. Take good care of yourself, and as always, "May the Force be with you."
With my most sincere appreciation and respect,
Rich Barnett
Bill, no one can do justice to the contributions you've made to this company over your many, many years. First and foremost, thank you for the effort, the sacrifices, and the talent that you allowed us in your time here.
Secondly, I wish you all the best in your retirement, which I'm sure will be little more than a "timeout" between pursuits. The golf course groundskeepers with low supplies of replacement sod will be especially glad to see you rejoin the workforce. That said, I hope you get some time to relax and recharge.
Thirdly, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors, and I hope that you will always keep in touch. Any company that lands you would be wise to take full advantage of the knowledge and skill that you offer.
Finally, I will personally miss your talents and your friendship, as I know others will. Take good care of yourself, and as always, "May the Force be with you."
With my most sincere appreciation and respect,
Rich Barnett
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
All the best Bill
When I heard of ESP in the early 90s I thought Extra Sensory Perception hmm where did that come from. Well in 2004 I finally got to meet several of the dedicated people behind it including you Bill. I even got to work with you on the source or was it The Source and that was a lot of fun. Now you are going to join me on the other side of retirement. I hope we get together sometime, you live just a short drive from Vancouver BC in the Seattle area so it would be easy for me to head in your direction sometime.
Anyways keep in touch, the best of all in your future endeavors and who on earth is going to replace you with your Verity skills?
Bon voyage Bill,
Ron
Anyways keep in touch, the best of all in your future endeavors and who on earth is going to replace you with your Verity skills?
Bon voyage Bill,
Ron
You will be missed!
Hi Bill,
I hate to see you go, but am very happy for you and wish you all the best. It's been great working closely with you again over the last several months. I've appreciated your willingness to share your extensive knowledge and insight with those of us who are not quite so technical - and your patience when we don't quite get it! Thank you for your hard work (right up to the very last minute, I might add). Good luck to you in all you do.
Julie
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