248 CHAPTER 15 the “Expected Order Shipment Report”, which was dynamite. • Marcia Hickey is one of the nicest ladies you will meet. There are a lot of very nice people working at Western States. • John Madaffari told me he was a patriot, and loved working for the Company. Later, on June 6, 2014, having sent an email to all employees noting the 60th anniversary of D-Day, John answered almost immediately that he remembered it well. It was the first thing he thought of when he got up that morning. Then I realized he was referring to the actual D-Day, June 6, 1944 noting he would have been an impressionable 7 or 8 year-old boy. He said they were listening to the radio and everyone was frightened because of the reports of heavy causalities and the uncertainty of the times. We should have a flagpole. • There are lots of car guys that work for the Company. Many own rides worth driving, Camaros, BMWs, Harleys, project cars. Hamilton has its own drag strip. I’ll take a car guy any day. • Wes Flannery is reportedly a good poker player; I can see it. He is proud to be a Western States man and remembers every machine and part. He showed me the shipment records from circa 1974 when we shipped an average of one machine per day and he was right in the thick of it. Later, when we were in a conceptual design meeting to decide whether or not to build the new lab unit, he said, “We built something like that years ago”. He went into the back room and retrieved a set of old drawings in about 10 minutes. Case closed. • Bill Temple is contemplative, creative and a very analytical engineer. His sister is a musician, which is related. Bill is also a car guy “There is no replacement for displacement.” • Our auditors, Clark Schaefer Hackett, tell us they enjoy auditing our financials at year-end (and we enjoy working with them). The accounting department runs like a fine tuned engine (almost never makes a mistake). Their integrity and competence is unquestionable. I worked some places your paycheck was sometimes a little off (short). Eye shades and hats off to all professionals in Accounting & Finance. DOUG BUCKNER After arrival from the left coast in 2011, I needed to get to know the people. Everyone was very busy, so I asked Nick Nichting to set up meetings with each employee on his or her birthday. That way, theoretically, after one year I would talk to everyone. I was pleasantly surprised by what I learned; here are a few muses and surprises; • Don Henkel likes to dance. That’s right, a dancing Einstein, tango, polka, rock and roll, it doesn’t matter. Dr. Henkel can dance. • Kathy Huff drives a pickup truck and loves horses. She is very knowledgeable and “makes” the shop run. I would wander down the hall to look at the travelers (work orders, parts list, drawings) spread- out on her table ready for release. This gave a visual indication of shop load and how shipments should go for the month (in 30 seconds). Then I would head out to the shop to see Gabe, Eugene, Kent, Don or Terry, always get straightforward answers and affirm that Kathy Huff was right-on again. That was invaluable until Scott Kunkel came up with