Paul has been my friend for the past 34 years. And what a wonderful friend he has been. Together we have seen Malcolm Pirnie become the most respected environmental consulting firm in the country.

Paul has been much more than a friend to me alone, for he has deeply touched many lives, both directly and indirectly. First and foremost he was a leader -- a leader of our firm and a leader and philosopher in our profession. As we talked about Paul and his leadership over the past several days, some phrases kept recurring, and they truly capture the man as he was seen by others:

• a man of constant inspiration
• a visionary
• a man with a passion for excellence
• a man with the ability to inspire people to be the best that they can be
• a man who stood for change
• a team-oriented person
• a man who earned the respect he received
• a man of integrity … a man of fun

"Environmental engineering and environmental science is what I would have pursued as a sideline if I could not have made a living at it, and it has been fun for me absolutely every day."

In reflecting on his own immortality in the same lecture, he offered:

"I stand before you today wishing that I were much younger. Younger, not because I want to live forever, but because I think we are entering the most exciting time in the history of environmental engineering, and I simply want the privilege to see more of it happen. Probably, I would like to help in leading us through this exciting time -- but that is less important to me than to see how it evolves, how we progress, and where we end up. If we are as productive in the next generation as I think we will be -- as we absolutely need to be -- I think we will be at a totally different level than we are today. It should be spectacular to watch."

It's sad to realize that Paul will not be with us to witness this "spectacular."

Paul loved his two families very much: first, his personal family -- Iris, Jordan, Jeffrey and Lisa -- and, in turn, their loved ones and his grandchildren. But his second family was all off us at Malcolm Pirnie.

Since we announced the seriousness of his condition on Monday, we have received hundreds of calls and communications from our staff, clients, leaders in the environmental profession and friends. All of them have had their lives touched in some way by Paul. Several of the most respected leaders in our industry have put it simply: "the profession has just lost a great leader."

Dr. Desmond Lawler, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin wrote his colleagues:

"This is a tremendous loss to us at UT and even more so to the Environmental Engineering profession; Paul is a brilliant engineer, a visionary with respect to the role of engineering in society, a person with wisdom about the interaction of practicing engineers and university professors, and, most importantly, a wonderful person."

Others, earlier in the week, begged me to get word to Paul that they truly loved him. An example of the feelings of our staff for Paul is reflected in one e-mail I received from an administrative person in one of our offices:

"Gary, I am deeply saddened by this news. I feel very close to Paul as he always treated me like a queen. Once in a while he would call me to see how things were coming along in our office. While he was in our office this summer attending the WEF Conference, I picked him up at his hotel and brought him to visit our new offices; he also got to visit one-on-one with the staff."

The wife of one of our long-time senior members expressed the thoughts of many of us in a note she gave to me a few days ago. In it she writes:

"I know about his brilliance and his business savvy, but to me, his charm, his sense of humor and the twinkle in his eye were to be equally remembered. Thank you Paul, I'll miss you."

When Dan Shevchik and I visited Paul on Sunday we could tell he was in considerable pain. It was difficult for him to speak. Even so, he conveyed his message to us with the smile that we all recognize as Paul's own. On several occasions I asked him for some words of wisdom that I could take back to all of our staff. Just before we thanked Paul on behalf of the firm for everything he has given us and said our own goodbye for the last time, he flashed a smile, and, responding to my earlier request, said, "tell them to work hard - and to have fun." Isn't that what we would expect to hear from Paul?

I conveyed these words of Paul to our staff in a memorandum last Monday. In response, one of our Officers sent this memorandum to the local office staff:

"It is with great personal sadness and a heavy heart that I forward the attached memo to you all. Paul has always been a source of strength for me as I am sure he has for many of you. It is now that we must stay together to help each other through this time. We must remember Paul's message - work hard and have fun! It was always the first question Paul asked me - Are you having fun?"

We all loved Paul and will miss him very, very much. To give all of us in the Malcolm Pirnie family an opportunity to remember Paul, and to reflect on the impacts he made on our firm and on each of us, our Directors have established Monday, August 23rd as a Day of Celebration for the Life of Paul Busch in each of our 40 offices nationwide.

In an effort to keep Paul's spirit, inspiration, and memory with us, our Board of Directors will establish the Dr. Paul L. Busch Prize. The Prize will be presented annually to a member of Paul's Malcolm Pirnie family for demonstrated commitment to the environmental profession. We hope that you, Iris, will honor us by making the presentation at our Annual meeting. In addition, we are discussing with professional organizations, the establishment of a Paul L. Busch Award and other appropriate recognitions.

At the conclusion of Paul's lecture I mentioned earlier, "In Search of Quantum Jumps: Breaking Out of the Box in Environmental Science and Technology," Paul offered a challenge to his own family when he said:

"Unhappily, I don't expect to be around to see how this all turns out. But, we've got a profound, collective responsibility to the future -- to our grandchildren -- for sustainability. So, I've asked my children to make sure my grandkids keep an eye on the environment to see if our field is making the necessary quantum jumps to protect the natural world while continuing economic growth. That's the real objective! And we should be trying now to lead the way to satisfying those future needs."

I see this as a challenge he was making to all of us. And, I for one, accept that challenge.

Iris, Jordan, Jeffrey and Lisa -- we thank you from the bottom of our hearts for sharing Paul with us. He meant so much more to us than I can hope to put into words.

Paul -- Doctor -- my friend: peace be with you. You left us far too soon. But you left behind a legacy for us to follow.