Transcript

Elmer was a force, just a wonderful force. He was mentor, like champion, a coach, a friend. He just was awesome. He put very He was a presence. He had a big presence. Elmer was the master sales person. He was out there networking, so I'd bump into him and he always knew who I was. He just had that kind of flair and personality and he made everyone feel special. His love for this country and for industry and the skilled labor that was needed to make this a world class environment, work environment was so, so important to him and he was so passionate about it. And you saw that in everything he did, something he cared about immensely. I mean, it was. You saw the investment that he would make both through mentorship, through, you know, involvement in activities and certainly financially to, to make sure that vocational education and the, and the students that went through vocational education would have successes in their careers. And in my role working with small businesses, every day you see, you see the vocations, you see the trades coming through in those businesses and the amount of success that they have and how that's becoming an even greater career option for students as they determine, do I want to go to college? Do I want to you? Do do we want to go into the locations? He would just promote them and promote them to either start their own businesses or just take charge and, and do a great job. And he just, he had a way with the students that was interesting and powerful. What he did was skills is no different than what he did with many, many people, many companies, many people he mentored. He just had that way of understanding the the business cycle, the cycle of the organization and helping to develop. That organization to be the best that they could be. He was more than a. Cofounder. He and I of of embassy, he was a personal friend, a mentor and even today when I get into a decision making process where I'm thinking what do I do? OK, I I take a time out and say what would Elmer do? Right then I get the answer. It's usually right too.