TheBanyanTree: Reunion

[Mark Funk]

Tonight my wife and I will attend a reunion gathering of former employees of a company formed 35 years ago.  I went to work for that company shortly after it started and shortly after I graduated from college.  I stayed for 17 years and you could say we grew up together.  The company, which grew in part through acquisition and merger, was eventually purchase and merged with another company and all operations were discontinued in this area.  In effect the company no longer exists.
 
However, for many of us the company was unique, in part due to the strong bonds formed between the employees as we worked to make the company a success.  It is these strong bonds that bring us back together after 35 years even though many of us have not seen each other for the past 20 years.  I'm looking forward to the gathering!
 
It would be difficult for me to explain what made the company unique.  Perhaps for me it is because it was my first major career experience.  Perhaps it was because even though the company was a new startup it started with a professional management team, not a couple of guys working out of their garage, and because that team delegated and inspired us to make our own decisions.  Perhaps it was because the company was a "sweetheart of Wall Street," a company that seemed to interest investors.  Perhaps it was because we worked hard and played hard and genuinely enjoyed working with each other.  
 
Even the company folklore of how the company name was picked is unique.  The story goes that the founders were discussing possible names and the suggestion was made that the company should be Data something, as the company would build and market data processing equipment.  Someone else said there must be a hundred data companies out there.  His comment prompted them to choose the name Data 100.
 
Tonight we celebrate our time together at Data 100.
 
Mark