No subject

My dear friend and colleague of 17 years, Ken Rainey, died on September
24
from complications from cancer.=20

It was sudden and unexpected.  Although Ken was diagnosed with prostate
cancer about a year and a half ago, he chose to go to the Mayo Clinic
for
treatment, which he announced to everyone was successful, soon after the
treatment began.  He continued to receive a clean bill of health with
every
6-month followup test.  Ken also continued to be involved in everything
in
his usual way: taking on more than any person half his age should and
doing
it all well.  He was our department chair for the last 3 years before
his
retirement in June 30, 2006.  He was continuing his relationship with
our
university, however, through his leadership of our new dual degree
program
with a university in China and his pivotal role in making the program
happen.  He worked with the first group of students that arrived on our
campus in August.

Our technical communication advisory board had designated its first
major
fund-raising/community-building effort a RaineyRoast in honor of Ken's
retirement.  The Roast (which was really a tribute rather than a roast)
was
held on Saturday, September 16.  The prior week I had called Ken to talk
about an article we are co-authoring (with Herb Smith) on our China
program,
and he answered his cell phone from his hospital bed, which surprised me
on
both the fact that he was in the hospital and also that he was answering
his
own cell phone.  He told me that he was taken to the hospital because he
was
having a reaction to a new diabetic medication he was on (having been
diagnosed with diabetes the month before).  While in the hospital they
ran
some tests and found that his cancer had returned.  Ken had surgery that
weekend, and, although he was weak and tired the following Saturday
night,
he and his family were there, along with 75 former students and
colleagues
for the RaineyRoast.  At the end of the evening, Ken spoke, and informed
us
that he and his wife Elaine were establishing a $10,000 Kenneth and
Elaine
Rainey Scholarship for the technical communication program at Southern
Poly.


The next week he began chemotheraphy for the cancer. On Sunday night he
was
taken to the emergency room where he died.=20

It makes me incredibly sad to write this.  But I console myself with the
fact that we had the opportunity to show him how much we loved and
respected
him.=20

I plan to write a tribute for Intercom (deadline November 1), to appear
in
the January issue.  If there are comments you want to include in the
article, please send them to me (cbarnum at spsu.edu).  I don't expect to
be
able to use all of them, but I will use some; the rest will become part
of a
tribute I am preparing for the Rainey family, made up of the outpouring
of
good memories and good will that is coming in from all over the United
States and beyond.

Carol Barnum

---
You are currently subscribed to attw-l as: thomas.barker at ttu.edu
To unsubscribe, configure your subscription, or review attw-l archives,
go to http://lyris.acs.ttu.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=3Dattw-l.  Or =
e-mail
the list manager at sam.dragga at ttu.edu.
---