Two Meetings

So Don sits down at the Review. Quiet guy, easily ignored. Does his job and, now, a half dozen other departments are going to sign-off on the project - or find reasons to object and require changes for things that Don overlooked or otherwise missed.

But here is the beauty moment:

"I have to object, Don, because there's not enough data on the Triple Y process. Re-verification will be needed."

Don's soft eyes harden, his voice gets softer - and steely: "Page 7."

"But it's not -" and you can tell that the page is being opened for the first time, even though the Review Report had been circulated a week earlier, "it's not-"

"It's right here. Three passes. Each one exceeding published requirements." And you can see that Don is prepared. That he has actually preempted every possible objection by that old reliable: professionalism.

And his voice never raises, and he's till the pudgy, unassuming man sitting at the end of the table, and he shoots down every objection with facts and full disclosure.

* * * * *

Buck was brilliant at the meeting, dominating it in fact.

His strong-voiced comments forced them to reconsider the proposal's merits and to delay what - as Buck so powerfully observed in that good-humored way of his - what would have been a certain disaster.

Later, discussing the proposal with his assistants, Buck was overheard to boast: "Naw, I never read the thing. Who has time for that crap?"