David's remarks at his last ALDOT workshop presentation:
Well this has been our last workshop I have presented to you. I hope each of you has gotten something from them. Some may have left you with questions unanswered. You must ask. You must try it out. I hope they sparked some inquisitiveness or interest for you to develop a new skill. I have enjoyed putting them together. But I didn't do them for me. I did them for you.
I have seen countless changes in personnel and technology in my 25 1/2 years here in pre-construction. There were times I would think I am looking forward to the next technology change. Well, technology will continue to change from now on.
Everyone works toward a day that they will retire, but few do long term planning for it. Some may even think they will work forever, or feel that they have already been working forever.
There will come a time when each of us will say, 'its time.' Fellow co-workers, I'm saying 'It's time.'
I have said to several of you that I would have to work until I pay off Sears, Well, I'm paying off Sears.
I did not think about this until just a few months ago. And this has been on my mind almost continuously since. This is not something I have taken lightly. I enjoy my work. But you probably knew that. I feel a sense of responsibility for the work I do, for the experiences I share.
I feel what I do is for the State; that is, for the people of Alabama. We have the public trust to do our best to provide a safe and economical transportation system. And I do not take that lightly.
This department does not produce a product. We don't manufacture anything. It is a service that is performed. We, therefore, have an obligation to perform that service to the highest degree of accuracy and professionalism as we can.
To do this includes self-improvement. These topics or tools I have presented to you are now yours. It is up to you how you use these tools so they become your skills. It is not sufficient to just be exposed to them. Use them.
I find myself daily reading up on something new, working out a process I had trouble with earlier, figuring out something new, "Trying to learn something new everyday." I go home that day with a sense of accomplishment that I now know something that I didn't know before.
I have always been a 'tinkerer'. My parents can attest to that. I once connected a train whistle and light with Halloween mask to our old coal furnace switch. When Dad turned the switch on that cold autumn pre dawn morning, I awoke and hit the floor ah' runnin'.
I learned something I didn't know before: 'put things back like you found them.'
Tinkering became inquisitive. After I came into 'the drafting room' in February 1973, I 'hossed' cross sections for six months. Let me tell you that got old.
I think I can tell this next without offending him. One day I overheard Austin Bolton talking to someone about a pipe they needed designed. Austin did some figuring, used some charts and tables, I didn't know what he was doing. After a while, he scratched his head and asked the fellow, "Well what size do you want the pipe to be?"
I didn't say anything, but thought to myself, "Something's wrong here; there must be another way."
So I have been looking for another way ever since.
I treasure each of you as my friend and will be checking up on you from time to time. This will probably be my last time to speak to you all together, my co-workers in design. So let me leave you with something I paraphrased from a famous document in our nations capitol:
I call this My -------->