It is with a heavy heart that I take the helm of Stone World and write my first Stone Column. For nearly 18 years, I have worked closely with Mike, and usually I was the one proofing his words and making sure there weren’t any typos. He took writing the column seriously, and would always ask for my feedback.
We made a great team all of these years — once referred to as “Batman and Robin” by a former vice president in our corporate office. And Mike was Batman — always the problem solver. No matter if an architect only gave us vague details about a project or we didn’t receive the greatest photos for an article, Mike somehow was confident that we could make it work. At times, I have to say I would be skeptical, but in the end, he did make it come out okay. He was always the optimist, and sometimes it seemed like he even thrived on the challenge.