>At the keynote for Southwest Fox 2011, Rick Schummer, Tamar Granor, and I had the pleasure of announcing this year’s recipients of the FoxPro Lifetime Achievement Award: Drew Speedie, Steven Black, and Toni Feltman. See my blog for details and anecdotes about the presentation: http://doughennig.blogspot.com/2011/10/2011-lifetime-achievement-award.html.
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Terrifically good choices. I am really pleased to read this. It's a testament to how many "insanely great" people there have been in the Fox world that Drew, Steve, and Toni had to wait in line. It's a deep well, isn't it?

For whatever it's worth, here are a few memories of interactions with each of them. Obviously they are strictly personal memories. I believe oral biography is the truest form of biography.

My first knowledge of Drew was from his FPA "Tips and Tricks" column. He was sensational at it, as was his predecessor, and led me to new knowledge of FoxPro when each new issue arrived in the mail. (God, I am getting old). The picture may have given a misimpression because with the tinted glasses he looked a little hoody, like maybe the kind of guy who might pummel another motorist in a road rage incident. Nothing could have been further from the truth. When I met him in person at the VFP 3 launch event and the first GLGDW he was upbeat, enthusiastic, and had his son with him on all the excursions. He loved VFP 3. Not that he didn't see not-yet-ready-for-prime-time aspects, as about everyone did, but it was such a long kick down the field from FoxPro 2.x he could barely contain his delight. "We get all this for free!" he said more than once. His enthusiasm for the real, grown-up version of FoxPro poured off him in waves. Some of us remember Ken Levy speaking a mile a minute at conferences. Drew wasn't too many beats behind him in tempo.

(I include and put this paragraph in parentheses because I know what some of you are thinking. I will never, ever, ever believe Drew jumped off that bridge and took his son down with him. Never).

Steve is one of the most brilliant people I have ever met. He always seems to be about six moves ahead. I knew him on the FoxForum in the way online acquaintances tend to know each other, which is not really. At a Microsoft preview of what was then called by its beta name FoxPro 3.0, we met. Steve was there on merit, me by good chance. Bob Grommes, the FoxTalk editor at the time, was invited and couldn't go because his brother was getting married at the same time. He asked if I was interested in going in his place, not violating his Alpha non-disclosure other than to suggest I should be very interested. I can take a hint.

In contrast to his sometimes cantankerous online presence, Steve was immediately personable and likeable. The group was waiting in the hotel lobby for the shuttle bus the first morning and Steve came over and held his hand out. He knew who I was somehow -- his business to know, I guess, playing six moves ahead. We had recently chatted online about the end of the hockey player strike. "Game on!" we said almost simultaneously.

My best memory of Steve is from the first WhilFest. Steve knocked his two scheduled presentations dead and talked Whil into letting him do a third ad hoc session on design patterns, which was at the time a brand new concept. He was on his game, charming the audience with asides like "Z, do you mean zed?" The technical content was never less than stellar. So anyway, one evening I wound up going out to dinner with Steve and Andy Neil of MicroMega, the chief architect along with Alan Schwartz of FoxFire. (Sorry, "FoxFire!" exclamation point ;-)).

The two of them got riffing on one of that day's presentations about error handling in VFP, one of the aspects of the language that was radically changed. ".... kind of missed the boat, didn't he?" one of them said. "Yep," the other said. And then they were off to the races with literally napkins and a crummy Bic one of them had in his pocket. I was smart enough to keep my yap shut and listen. It was the difference between tool users like me and tool makers like them. Lucky me to have been there. I couldn't even tell you what we ate.

And Toni, well, then there's Toni. Very easy to underestimate, I imagine, because she is just so darned nice and Midwest girl next door good looking. Make no mistake about it, she is seriously off the charts in her technical knowledge. She worked at Fox Software, along with Mike. (Geeks in love! -- I love it <g>). If I haven't missed a gate she is the first lifetime achievement recipient who worked at Fox Software. She has spoken at the FUDG group in Chicago many times. At one of them she was asked about DBCX. She said Oh, someone at MicroMega started it (Marie Hooper?), then so and so at Flash had it for a while, then I finished it. The tongues of all the geeky guys in attendance plopped to the floor at once, LOL.

My best personal memory of Toni and Mike, and it's easy to remember the time and place specifically, is from the day after Princess Di died. One or both of them was in town to speak and we had prearranged an afternoon cookout at my house. Mic, then an infant, was in tow in his baby holder. Dan Freeman was in town and was also there. Grilled chicken, grilled brats, some sides. Totally amiable backyard summer get-together. Here is a clue about Toni -- my daughters were quite young and both wanted to sit next to Toni. So she's got all that going for her and she's still a genius. IMO Mike Feltman is a very astute man <g>.

One last good FoxPro memory before getting the sleep I need -- driving you up to to the first WhilFest from O'Hare. A great conversation.

Congrats again to all the new and prior recipients.

Mike