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Good-bye Bo and Irene
CUG bids farewell to two steadfast friends . . .
 Robert "Bo" Ewald |
 Irene Qualters |
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by Lynda Lester
At the Stuttgart CUG, Bo Ewald, executive vice president of SGI, and Irene Qualters, president of Cray Technical Computing, turned over the reigns to new SGI management. CUG attendees uniformly expressed regret at their departure.
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My interactions with them were always fairly indirect, I didn't have a lot of personal interactions with them -- but when the need arose, they were always good at responding, even though we were very much a minor site. They were definitely inspiring. I'm going to miss them tremendously. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about that, but it's going to take awhile. Even for Irene with her less-than-large physical stature, there's very large shoes to fill. -- Eric Greenwade |
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 I think I'm going to keep in touch with Irene, because I knew her when she was a compiler writer and I was a compiler writer, so I consider her a friend. You know, that's what it is. And Bo has been outstanding in supporting CUG and knowing the people.
It was their atmosphere, their Minnesota atmosphere. I don't know where they come from, but they've adopted the Minnesota atmosphere. And Irene is just a special person in my mind. --Laney Kulsrud |
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 I've been coming to CUG for 16 years, so I knew Bo when he was a user in the user group from Los Alamos; I knew him back in the old days. I'll definitely miss him and Irene. They were both incredible people, we really enjoyed having them.
-- Fran Pelligrino | |
 I'm very much going to miss Bo and Irene -- I think because they were so customer focused. Obviously we hope that the new people will be equally customer focused, but Bo and Irene have been around for so long and they personally know a very large number of people.
I mean, I was so impressed on Tuesday night -- I met Irene in the elevator, and she immediately knew the problems that we'd been having at our site. With all the other things she had on her shoulders at the moment, with the changes in the company and her immanent departure, to actually pick up on that and ask how the problems were, that kind of response I think is very creditable.
You just need to hope that the new people can take such personal interest in individual customers. -- Mike Brown |
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 I'm certainly sad to see Bo and Irene leaving. They seem to put so much into the company, and they appear to be so humble. I wish them the best.
-- Manjit Bopari | |
 I've known Bo since the Control Data Corporation days, back in the 70s -- he was a customer with Los Alamos National Lab, he came to the executive symposiums I ran for CDC. So I've known him long time. He's a wonderful person, I enjoy talking to him. He was one of my big mentors at Cray.Irene was at Cray when I came on board. She's always been wonderful; she's kind and she's helpful. She has good ideas, and she's open to your ideas. There will be a hole that's not going to be filled easily, if ever, with both of them leaving. Everyone feels that way about them. -- Mary Amiot | |
 Bo and Irene are great examples of leadership, and it's sad that they're going to be leaving the company. I wish them well in the future. They're going to be hard to replace, I'm sure
-- Robert Bell |
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 Bo and Irene contributed a lot to CUG. For one thing, they were always around during the entire CUG conference -- or at least Irene was always here during the whole CUG conference. Bo may have come and gone, but he was primarily here that week. He may have had to sneak out for a half a day or something, but he'd be back. There was definitely a personal touch. They knew people at CUG, even those who weren't involved as officers or SIG chairs, and they remembered little things from one time to the next. It was very personable and very pleasant.
-- Barbara Horner-Miller | |
 I was very choked up when Bo and Irene said good-bye. It's difficult. I'm going to miss them.
They've always contributed themselves, completely. They've always listened to the customers, they've always been here, they've always been cheerful and energetic. They are CUG, they are Cray. It's like the end of an era. -- Bonnie Hall |
Bo and Irene came to typify what CUG was, what high-performance computing was. They were icons for me. I got into the game late enough where I'd never had much interaction with Seymour and some of the others, so Bo and Irene were always it.