On man day one of my oldest ibm friends and mentors John K retired after 40 years at ibm . John was an executive VP when he retired but I remember him when he was a 2nd line manager in Fishkill . I’ve worked somewhere under him in one capacity or another for more than 25 years .. he was a great mentor to me and many other technical folks at ibm. He was kind I’d like The Godfather for the technical leadership . When Sam died .. Jom sent his plan down to pick up our family in Florida .. and .. then showed up at Sams memorial at our house .. I’ll never forget that.

There was a nice virtual tribute to john on Monday . Our svp Dario has put together a really nice program . Our CEO Arvind spoke , as did our former CEO Ginni . Lots of Johns friends and associates from the industry sent video tributes too. It was inspiring to hear from all these folks about how they viewed john and his accomplishments..

In the end Dario gave john some nice tributes including A version of the first chip he worked on include and the final chip it was built under his watch. There’s also given a beautiful scale model of a The IBM Watson jeopardy set and a scale model of aquantum computer.

John made some nice comments Thanking everyone… And especially his wife Honey joe

It was a great ceremony… And really touching. I felt a little sad that more people could be there in person… On the other hand I think so many people from the company dialed in but it was probably more than I could ever have been accommodated in any room

I left the session feeling inspired and a little sad… It’s definitely the end of era

We’ll miss you John… Have fun in your next adventures

Nite all, nite. Sam

-me