RE: Al Barsa

I received a call early this morning with the disturbing news. A good
friend, a great example of someone committed to what he believed in, and
someone who was always approachable.

He always had a sparkle in his eye when he spoke of the AS/400, but his
entire face would just light up when you heard him speak of his children.


As people become more well known, more popular, the cream of the crop in
their industry, they sometimes forget that they too were once "new-bies" in
the field. Not Al. He was always there to help. I can remember the first
time I met Mr. AS/400 at a local user group, and he had a crowd around him
listening to him tell one of his stories about some AS/400 issue, and we all
laughed as we hung onto his words as he told us a way around a problem.
Afterwards, it was him who came over to me and introduced himself. He was
always so approachable, and helpful to anyone. At a conference you could
always see him talking to people and helping them. On midrange-l when
someone had a real big problem, how many times did Al tell that person to
contact him personally. A friend to everyone who crossed his path. I also
remember the first time that I had spoken at a local user group, afterwards
Al came up to me and told me everything that I had done wrong :) It was
amazing that I ever spoke again, but he was right and it helped me. There
probably isn't enough bytes of storage on the largest 595 to list everyone
that Al helped in their career.

While he never worked for IBM on the AS/400, System I, iSeries, S/38, he had
a lot to do with the success of the box. Al was always there keeping the
pressure on IBM to get them to fix issues that he would uncover.

It just won't be the same without him at local user groups, COMMON, or his
habit of calling me at night with something he wanted to discuss, which we
would discuss pretty much whether I wanted to or not. Today, we all lost a
great friend, let us never forget how much Al has helped each of us in our
careers, and how he was always there.

As of today, every Power Systems box leaving Rochester, will have a new
System Value, QBARSA and it will be set to *MISSED.

My deepest condolences to Sue, Christie, and Albert.

Pete Massiello