It's truly hard to accept that Cory is actually gone from this earth. He was truly an amazing, down-to-earth personality.

Cory was instrumental to my being hired to work for ITM TwentyFirst (now Longevity Holdings LLC) in Minneapolis. He recommended the company request an immigrant work visa for me which ultimately led to me getting Permanent Resident status in the US. For that, I can never forget Cory. There are several others that I know Cory helped to give them a chance to build up a career in IT using his position as the Chief Information Officer at Longevity Holdings. A light in this world was surely taken away at his death.

With his remarkable leadership style, he made you at ease and committed to bring out the best you could give to your job and the wider team. he was a caring boss-a boss with many "benefits" I would say.

As I write this story about Cory, it has made me reflect on what kind of impression do I want to have on everyone I interact with in this life, knowing that living long into the future is not guaranteed for any one. My resolve to be someone like Cory is strengthened today and also to help others succeed when in a position to do so.

To the family of late Cory, I pray that God will grant you the fortitude to bear his loss and take solace in the blessing he was to you and to all who knew him.

Thank you, Cory, for being a source of good and a positive influence during your time on earth. See you on the other side of the bridge. Rest in peace, brother.

My family and I were moved by the beautiful memorial service yesterday. I am one of the many who were better off for knowing Cory and felt the goodness in him that all the speakers described so well.

I was reminded of a time back in 1999 at the APS Plasma Physics conference in Seattle. I can't remember how it got started but one night after dinner Cory and I spent the evening walking all around Seattle, just talking and taking in the city. We kept going until well after midnight and didn't realize we had wandered into a not-so-great neighborhood. We turned a corner and were startled when someone shouted "Five-Oh!" and about half a dozen people started running. It took us a minute to realize what was happening, and that the police was us! We had a good laugh about that, all the way back to the hotel.

Cory told me about his brother's work on huge, complicated military ships as a way to think about how our own applications require regular maintenance. "Things break all the time", he said "but that's why you keep a dedicated staff to keep a small problem from turning into a bigger one."

It was a very simple message but helped my team work through some recent bugs we had encountered with a helpful perspective.