Monday, June 26, 2023
Back in in spring of 1987 I answered an ad for a shop supervisor to Builders Transport in Augusta Ga, after talking to Leon for about thirty minutes he decided that even though they had hired a person for that position there was an opening in the terminal at Spartanburg a possibility of something larger a little down the road. After working there for around 6 months he offered me an opening in a new terminal location in Ohio that he “tricked me into taking” his words.
What he saw in that thirty minutes I can only say was life changing in my life. I had always been successful in my life but never as just Alan Dye. It gave me a confidence that the people around me had taught and led me to be able to accomplish what ever I ran up on. It lead me and my girlfriend to have the confidence to get married before I moved off to Ohio and move as a family, which is going on 35 years with two sons with families of their own and three grandchildren.
In the ten years I was at Builders I was involved in a lot of projects that were way beyond the norm in a generation that dwelled on college degrees, for someone with a ged and a few semesters of engineering from the local tech school. I’m sure that Leon was throwing my name in the mix or at the least verifying that I was capable of being involved.
Even after leaving Builders he still stayed in touch, gave me advice on changes I might be thinking about making or just a pick me up and hearing his voice to verify the quality of the job I’d always done when I might ask if I was doing things right.
I know after the last few days I’m not alone in saying that I’ll miss him and my vocabulary is way too limited to express my relationship with him, friend is way too limited a term for someone who has had so much impact on my life.
I’M PRETTY CERTAIN HE KNOWS WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY,
I’M GOING TO MISS YOU BOSS!