I have known Mike personally and professionally for 25 years.

Words that describe Mike are:

• non-judgmental
• no ego
• good listener
• creative
• funny
• super competent

Professionally, Mike could do anything he set out to do.  Here are 3 examples:

• At Cray Research (1981), he was ready to teach a difficult class in 2 months when we had allocated 6 months for his preparation.
• At Instrumental (1994), a Cray research spin-off, he completed a 9 month software development project in 2 months; allowing us to make a significant sale.
• At C&P Technologies (2006), his last employer (where I introduced him), I was told by Ron Becker, the CEO, that Mike was "everything I promised...and then some".

In closing, I want to say that Mike was a great friend and a great human being.  I am honored to have been one of his closest friends.

 

Sincerely,

Robbie Cordo

ps:  Mike's web site is still running with many funny cartoons.  It is at: http://www.geocities.com/whaletwig/ . Here is what his "About Whaletwig" link says:

                                    Whale-Twig is one of several English translations of my Swedish family name Wahlquist (Valkvist in Sweden)

Wahl, Wal, or Val = Whale

Quist or Kvist = Twig

I thought it sounded cool so I chose for my cartoons

Michael Kermit Wahlquist