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John Barry, Popularizer of WD-40, Dies at 84 - Obituary (Obit) - NYTimes.com

Yet another historic milestone in my life has passed.

In late 1973, I was working in Los Angeles for Rockwell International. Being mid-westerners, we didn't take that well to the California lifestyle and I absolutely hated the LA comute (from the San Fernando Valley). About that time a headhunter in San Deigo called me and said they were looking for some kind of business development guy at a little company called WD-40 and was I interested? Even though I didn't know who WD-40 was or what they did, I decided to check it out. I went down for an interview and it turned out that that interview was with John Barry. I've never had a more interesting interview, he was a facinating guy.

I'll never know whether or not I would have gotten the job at WD-40 (I think I might have), because before I had heard anything back from Barry I'd already gotten another offer from a friend back in Wisconsin, and we jumped at the chance to get back to the mid-west. One of those forks in the road that could have changed my life completely.

Sad to see the likes of John Barry pass, I didn't really know him except for that one brief incident, but I have admired him from afar ever since.

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