Passing of Former Colleague Dan Gawiak

Some of my readers who are librarians may not know that I started my career as a chemist.  My second was with a company that was known as UOP Fragrances where I started in June 1975.  While I was employed there one of my colleagues was Dan Gawiak. I remember eating lunch with him several times.  Shortly after I began there, the company was sold to a Dutch outfit called Naarden.  In late 1976 in a big reorganization they fired everyone from the research director to the bottle washer in one feel swoop leaving Dan and I on the unemployment line.  I ended up at Pfizer in Groton, Ct. while Dan landed a position at Sun Chemical Company in Carlstadt, NJ.  We keept in touch for several years.  I vaguely remember going out for pizza with him in the late 1970s.

I eventually became a chemistry librarian while Dan stayed as a laboratory chemist.  In 1987 or 1988 I ran into Dan at an STN International training session in midtown Manhattan while I worked for NYPL.  At that time Dan worked at Hexagon Laboratories in the Bronx and was interested in learning about chemical searching.  After that I lost touch with him.

Today, while reading the Chemical and Engineering News of July 18 I read that Dan passed away last November at age 60.  At the time of his untimely passing he worked at Baxter Healthcare in Cherry Hill, NJ.  I found an obituary of Dan at http://hosting-tributes-1611.tributes.com/show/Daniel-Gawiak-89980657.

It is very sad to read about the passing of colleagues at a young age.  In this professional blog, I previous reported the passings of:

• Reynaldo Alejandro from NYPL
• Jamie MacInnis from NJIT

In my personal journal I previously reported the passing of my University of Rhode Island friend and colleague Mike Frechette.

When I read about these untimely passings I must recall Harry Harrison's famous quote "Every Day Should be unrapped like a special gift."