I am a colleague of Kevin’s from work. At some point after a few years of being in the same group, we realized that we had similar interests. First it was cars. Over time we added several categories: baseball, cooking, baking, TV series and pets. Over the years, these shared interests led to endless discussions and emails. Over time our relationship had grown and was continuing to grow.

There was nothing superficial about sharing an interest with Kevin. Whatever the discussion, I could expect an email response from Kevin within 24 hours with relatively deep research and opinions about the subject “du jour.” Fortunately, I soon learned that I wasn’t obligated to keep up with these “essays” and research work; I realized that Kevin had already moved on to another subject, and that my response wasn’t as important as Kevin’s research process.

Over time, I came to realize that I wasn’t the only one that had this type of relationship with Kevin. Several of us at work that were close to him discussed this after his death and we found out that we all had similar experiences with Kevin. I gathered a representative collage of his emails that I have shared with others, and in fact haven’t deleted a single email of his; he is still in my contact list and always will be because he is still on my mind and in my memory.

I always felt like Kevin thought I was special. He was always questioning something or searching for some answer and would frequently ask for my thoughts and opinions. It became clear at his memorial that he related to many others in a similar way and I think that all of Kevin’s friends were special to him. He was a gentle person who really cared about people.

A physically big guy with the build of the hockey player that he was, Kevin was very attached to his small dog, Maggie. When Maggie became ill he talked regularly about her and what was required to keep her alive. Maggie needed an IV solution which required a metal stand to hold the solution. We had an ongoing discussion about the best way to prepare and paint the stand. I saw that the stand had become a symbol of Kevin’s love for his dog Maggie, and since there was no more that he could actually do to save Maggie’s life, he poured himself into the IV stand. He wanted to do anything he could to make things better for Maggie if only to make an IV stand look nicer. Kevin told me that Maggie was so small she slept on Kevin’s pillow. The day he came to work and told me Maggie died he just fell apart sobbing. I think he was embarrassed and said I probably thought it was strange to see a big guy crying over a little dog. I didn’t.

Kevin was a very intense person and when he did something it seemed to be with a laser focus. He got into a mode where he was baking a different cake almost every day and bringing it to work. He was a scientist when he talked about baking. I’m not sure what the criteria or goal was, but he would always tweak something on every cake: baking time, temperature, ingredients. The common thread was that they were always dense and had a lot of ginger. There were a lot of them too! I enjoyed eating them but even more the dissertation I received if I asked any questions. He would share all the details, usually more than I could absorb, but that never stopped me from asking or from enjoying getting his emails.

Very shortly before Kevin died he brought me a Hanukah gift. It was a large hard-cover color anthology of classic cars. Along with the book, it came with a card that had a picture of a 1958 Austin-Healey Bug-eye Sprite on the cover, a car that I once owned and told him about. He said he saw the book and thought it “belonged” with me. It was very moving and I treasure the book as well as the accompanying card.

I don’t think I will ever have a colleague or friend like Kevin again. I think of him frequently and when I do, I imagine what it was like on that dark, cold, desolate highway at the instant of the crash. I imagine that there was intense pain, hopefully for only one horrific instant. I can see Kevin’s face in my mind’s eye. I do know that this was a preventable death and the cause was reckless behavior that is unforgivable to me. It is ironic and sad that the person responsible is the one who survived. Now years later it’s painful to know that a purely legal technicality thwarted justice for Kevin.

A quote from Kevin that is pure Kevin: “I love the math and chemistry of baking, so I love to try to scale and combine various similar recipes, using ratio rules of thumb. Luckily I have a team of undiscriminating testers at Plantronics to get rid of all my disasters. They’ll eat anything free!”