Goodbye to a good guy.(INSIDE STORY)(Obituary)

As is so often the case in this age of text messaging, e-mail and assorted instant communication, the news arrived multiple times--swift, cold and harsh--like a couple of slaps across the face. Lloyd Clarke had died the day before in a bicycling accident in Incline Village, Nev.

Lloyd and I were not colleagues. You couldn't really call us friends. Heck, we were barely acquaintances, but we knew each other enough to exchange brief pleasantries at INFORMS meetings.

During his days at Georgia Tech, we shared a few plane rides and cab rides (and waits at airports) coming and going from Atlanta to whatever city INFORMS happened to be holding its spring or fall meeting at the time. I don't recall if he spotted my telltale shoulder bag from a previous INFORMS meeting first or if I spotted his, but I'm sure we chatted about INFORMS, the meeting or whatever else it is a couple of strangers chat about in cabs when the only thing they appear to have in common is an obscure profession called operations research.

Later, after he went to work for Schneider National in Green Bay, Wis., we didn't share plane or cab rides, but we always seemed to bump into each other at INFORMS conferences. Lloyd was easy to spot in a crowd, especially an INFORMS crowd, Sure, he was tall, black and goateed--somewhat unusual for this particular crowd--but what really made him stand out was his easy smile and pleasant demeanor. Lloyd was one of the good guys.

Our exchanges were almost always short ...