Condolences
A brilliant man. A funny man. A simple man. A family man, at work and at home. Very nostalgic to see how much a part of his life and existence we were all a part of. I had always marveled at the expressiveness of his face and particularly his eyes. May God allow Garland eternal rest in peaceful slumber.
Som
I knew Garland as Christa’s loving and thoughtful father. He was aces, willing to drive to concerts, entertain teenagers, and offer worldly advice with care and kindness. My condolences to you Christa and your family. Sincerely, Karen
I first met Garland about forty years back when I joined Bell Labs at Holmdel. He and I worked in the same organization although he had joined a few years before me. Over the years, our paths crossed many times as we both continued to work in the company. In the late nineties, he asked me to join his organization to lead the service assurance engineering team. Even after he joined IBM as a part of the outsourcing deal, our relationships continued as I frequently worked with his IBM team until he retired from IBM.
Garland was a smart and highly technical professional. Being a physicist like him, we both shared a common love for the subject. He had a great sense of humor, and we would have many interesting conversations on a wide variety of topics. He was a great mentor and many of us in AT&T and IBM benefitted from his knowledge and advice. I am grateful for his friendship and guidance over the years and I cherish many fond memories. His departure is a great loss to us and we will miss him!
May God bless Garland’s soul. May He give his family peace and solace, as well as the strength to overcome this heavy loss.
Monowar Hossain
It is with a heavy heart that I write this message. I am so sorry to hear of Garland’s passing. I first met Garland in 1991 when I was just over a year into my professional career. His charisma and natural friendliness instantly caught my attention. Over the years we worked very closely together at both AT&T and IBM. Stories and memories of Garland are too numerous to mention. Garland was a mentor to me and over the years, I took the opportunity to take the lessons of his leadership to use in my own career.
Garland was a tremendous leader, a great mentor and a really good person.
May his memory be a blessing.
Elliot Olschwang
It is with deep sadness that I write this condolence message: Garland was truly a shining light in so many ways. I met him while working at AT&T and continued our Business relationship as well as friendship as he moved to IBM.
I found Garland to be extremely smart, witty, humorous but most importantly generous. He coached me at many times and help me grow personally and professionally.
The living world is a lesser place with his departure, but the spiritual world just got richer.
May his soul rest in peace.
Best Regards
Sorabh
Before I started working with Garland, I have heard so many good things about his Leadership skills, Subject matter expertise and above all People skills, from many who had worked with him for several years. And I was very excited when I had the privilege to experience them first hand in the couple of years of my direct association with him. Though it was just little more than a year that I directly worked under him, the personal connect that we could establish between us makes it feel like a lifetime. Looking at all the awards and certificates decorating his office wall (and his personal library) was a great inspiration to me. Garland has always awed me with his deep intellect and technical skills and how he keeps them honed (I remember the trip when I saw him reading a big bound physics book and making some notes, while I was dozing off shamelessly two seats ahead while flying to Dallas). I always felt so proud to introduce myself that I worked for Garland in any forum and was able to strike an instant conversation with any executive! He was such a humble human being, a great mentor and leader. I will cherish every moment that I worked with him and will continue to apply all the tips and tricks he taught me. May his soul rest in peace!
I’m so sorry for your loss. May the sympathy and
love of others and Gods words ( 2 Corin 1:2-4 )
give you the comfort you need at this time. With
my sincere and deepest condolences.
One of my fondest memory is the conversation about chess.
During the Christmas lunch, when everyone is laughing and talking nonsense, out of the blue Garland asked me if I am following the chess world championship. Given the Christmas background, it was weird, but I felt wonderfully warm and a bit ashamed. I used to follow chess for years while living back in Russia. But here, in America, I saw so little interest among general population that somehow, I decided that this is simply not an American thing and gave it up. And here is this wonderful intellectual person looking at me and telling me the chess stories, connecting the time and both sides of the planet.
But the story continues. A week later, in the middle of the weekly phone call to my parents, I told my dad about this conversation with Garland and was shocked by the reaction. My dad did not miss a bit, said the championship is over, told me the results and continued all Garland’s stories with the details from his side. It felt like they could be friends, seating behind the board and enjoying the chess game.
Somehow, with this one question, Garland tied our families much closer.