David Joseph Carlson

When I first started working at IBM, I was Dave’s secretary. He was my mentor and my teacher. Not only did he teach me about the internal workings of IBM, I learned a lot about Black Butte and Waluga Little League! He had a tremendous influence on my IBM career. Thank you, Dave. I will miss you.

I worked with Dave in major accounts at Mentor Graphics. Dave was the guy people would go to for advice - he always had the right perspective on things, whether business or life. He had a great sense of humor and always added life to any room.

I'm pretty sure Dave was the guy who secretly put out a plate of doggie treats at an offsite planning session we did at the old Rippling River resort, then quietly wrote on a flip chart the name of each person that unwittingly ate some. ...

I had the priviledge of working for Dave.

In fact he was the recruiting manager with whom I had first IBM contact, when IBM responded to my resume in 1968. I was then a USAF Captain at Offutt AFB, with a separation date, and no job. I didn't become one of Dave's direct reports until I had worked for IBM for a little over a year. At that point, my life, and - certainly (laughably described as) my career - changed for the massively better.

All the things said about...

We had a lot of good times working together, hunting and lunches. I'll miss you Dave.

Sorry not to have seen Dave in recent years. I always considered him one of my closest friend. When working together and then building the cabin in Black Butte we shared many fun moments together as indiviuduals and with our families. I have many fond memories that I will remember always. My best to all of his family. Jim Preston