I knew David way back in the SIS Sundata days..many years ago. As a young entry level novice he mentored me back when no one used the word “mentor” - basically in the day he looked out for me..he guided me ..he coached me ...and he ribbed me to no end with that hilarious pointed sense of humor we all remember. 

I always felt like he was on a full fledged ,100mph “hold on tight “ here we go journey through life ..that you were all welcome to join him on ...35 years later I can still hear his laugh. It was rare and distinct - you don’t get a chance to meet many forces of nature like Dave - I am glad I got that chance ..and I will really miss him. 

Here is the video of Rob McCord's tribute to David plus the video that Diane Strunk of PACT put together.

    http://youtu.be/Rsm-s-7XZew

and here is a video of two of David's appearances at the 1997 and 2008 Enterprise Awards.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra8De2-Gx0w

Thanks to Rick Riegel and Carolyn Brown for pulling all of this together. 

Tough saying goodbye to the man who:

inspired <me and so many others>,

believed in <me and so many others>,

laughed at and with <me and so many others>,

mentored and taught <me and so many others>,

challenged <me and so many others>,

invested in <me and so many others>,

harassed and razzed constantly <me and so many others>,

invested with <me and so many others>.

As others have said, it was always our treat when we asked David to breakfast.  WIth him being on 'fixed-income', it was always clear who was paying.  Every breakfast invitation was immediately met with David's barking voice, "Bring your bleeping wallet, you bleeping weenie!" as he laughed out loud while hanging up.

A bright light has extinguished. Thank you David Lipson for lighting so many other lights along your way.

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David was the biggest influence on my professional life and a great mentor.   I sent him a note thanking him for his positive influence on my life after a lunch meeting last year…one in which he made me pay because he “was on a fixed-income”.    Rather than acknowledge the compliment he started a thread with the following narrative (pay attention to the level of detail, 16 years after the game):     

“I was playing defense at the Harrington High field on the fat boy team.  I used my executive power to give someone a 'blow' on the sidelines and went in on offense.  When I realized John Martin was the corner back, I told Bill(y) to pump fake on the down out and up.  John Martin bit on the pump fake and at age 53 blew by him like a bullet. Bill(y) dropped in a perfect finger- tip pass.  John Martin realizing he was going to verbally abused claimed 'boss ball.'  Sadly, the fact is I burned him.  This is the true story.”

The thread grew to about 10 ex-ISCG’ers all with a story better than the previous one.  David had an inspiring influence on all of us. He was a great man and will be missed by many. 

David love to tell the story of the 2 of us at one of the XACP Advisory Board Meetings.  One of our portfolio companies had just finished explaining to our collected group of senior Advisors that the market for their product was unlimited, they had no competition and they could set any price for their product that they wanted.  David turned around to me without skipping a beat and said, "Boy their product is FM!" Perplexed by the comment I reminded him that their product had nothing to do with radios or FM stations. he said NO NO it is F...ing Magic!!!

We had just re laughed about this story last Thursday night at the PACT reception with Jeff and Casey in tow.