Dear Sherri and Family, My wife and I send our deepest, heartfelt, condolences out to you. I’ve know Joe for over 25 years, and fortunately for me, we became friends quickly and have remained so ever since. He called me 2 days before he passed-we were planning to have lunch that week. My phone was not on me at the time he called; wow-I wish that I could have talked with him for one last time. The world is missing a great person; I know that God must have plans for Joe. I’m devastated with his loss, and I know that I’m not the only friend of Joe who feels his loss in a huge way. When I met Joe (“way” back in the late 80’s), I was a newbie engineer. I remember sitting in my cubical thinking about some technical issue, and Joe walked by- he stopped and introduced himself. I was blown away with Joe’s charisma; he was like a magnet for people. And, he made everyone feel like they were his best friend. We had a running joke: Being that Joe is African American, and I am also, anytime we talked for more than 5 or 10 minutes, we’d head back to work-and always parted with: “let’s breakup before anyone thinks we’re starting a club”. Another thing that I remember vividly is that back then, in Silicon Valley, people adhered to hierarchies in the company, and executives (and even managers and such) did not fraternize with employees who were too far “down the stack” position-wise. Well Joe ignored that-he didn’t exclude anyone and everyone felt better after talking with him. I love Joe for being himself. Joe was like a mentor and brother, no matter how busy he would be, he’d always, and I mean *always*, stop and talk to you or offer advice if you had some issue. Through Joe’s friendship, I had the honor of meeting his lovely wife Sherri. Sherri is a wonderful, warm-hearted person also- so she and Joe were really a perfect match. My wife met Sherri also. I could write an entire book on Joe, he was (and I believe still is) an amazing person. His memory and spirit will stay with us forever, and our prayers and thoughts go out to Sherri and Joe’s entire family, friends, and colleagues. He will be missed greatly. Gary and Denise Tiggs