Bob Miniger was sunshine to me. He just made everything brighter. He made everything sort of fun, unless, I guess, if you were being fired. Of course, I kept in touch with Bob post-Balchem employment, because you just gravitated to Bob once you knew him. To me, the world is a little less bright now.
Here’s one of my favorite “Bob” memories and I have a lot of them.
I was working at Balchem for about a year, so I guess it was winter 2006. It was a Friday (I don’t remember the actual date). Dino and Frank were out of the office. Bob and I were the only “management team” members in NH. It was snowing very hard and the forecast was for more snow. People were inquiring with me (because they knew I was a softy and surmised that I likely wanted to go home too) whether Balchem was going to close NH and send everyone home because of the weather.
I’m sure all the old timers remember Dino’s penchant regarding “snow and office closings.” Yet, at this stage in my Balchem career, I was a legend in my own mind, and even though I probably knew I was not not far from being in Dino’s dog house for some reason or another, I somehow decided that it was a good idea to go over to Bob’s office and ask him, “Bob, should we close and send every one home because of the snow?”
He replied, “I don’t know,” and without hesitating, picked up his phone and dialed a number. I didn’t know who he was calling, but I figured it was Dino. Dino answered and Bob said the following, “hi Dino...Matt is in my office and he wants to close the office and send everyone home.”
I could not believe he said it like he did. My eyes jumped out of my head and I threw my hands at the ceiling in silent protest. The entire time he was looking at me and smiling, while he was listening to Dino. The conversation was short. He hung up and said to me, “nope, we’re not closing and Dino wants to see you first thing Monday morning.”
“Bob! You suck. Couldn’t you think think of any other way to say it to him,” I whined. Bob said something like, “sure, but none of the other ways were as fun as that....”
On Monday, there I was, firmly residing in Dino’s doghouse.
Perhaps I could have been mad at Bob, but I wasn’t. I thought it was as funny as Bob did and it turned out to be a cherished memory.
I will miss him. So many good memories....