John Conover served for one term as an ACP Director. He passed away on October 4. John was also a personal friend. He was interested in many things – including the social, environmental, historical, and political realms. In looking back through meeting summaries during his time on the Board, I was reminded how John was a keen observer of people and incredibly insightful. At one 2016 meeting, the item being discussed was our landscape contracting program, SoilKeepers. The issue was there was more demand than our Staff could keep up with. Someone suggested subcontracting some of the work. At the time, I would act as the Field Supervisor, going to every job to get our crew set up. Toward the end of the discussion, John opined that what clients really want is “to hang out with Collins, and not enough Collins in the world”. While that may have sometimes been the case, what John put his finger on was the degree to which our clients become passionate about soil health and how continuing success would need Staff other than me that was equally passionate. As an aside, it’s amazing to me that this quote so capturing the essence of John was recorded in the Meeting Summary from that day. He was a unique human and I will miss him.
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