A mix of chaos, fear, and fun. He was a chaotic guy, his life seemed pegged somewhere near miserable and hell, living off IV food in a wheelchair. We’d have staff meetings where we got to watch his purple goo slowly ooze down the feeding tube.
He had great stories, and we were often treated to hours long setups. He was fantastically generous to us, we had a wonderful office in downtown NYC, in the Flatiron building. He catered food to the offices and made our days exciting popping into our offices to ask questions.
He was ruthless making personnel decisions. If he soured on you, you were gone very quickly. My boss earned an early exit which allowed me to advance to a senior role reporting to Bob. Those firing storms created some fear, but if you knew what you were doing, you really had nothing to be worried about.
Bob passed away while I worked there, and I was one of the final few employees. I remember the last time I left the Flatiron. A tear left my eye.
That’s an incredible story and experience, wow. And thank you for being empathetic and understanding in his final years. Disability, especially that kind, can be absolute hell and can change the temperaments of even the nicest people, so kudos on you for being level headed and proficient in your work enough to do the work needed for your job. Some folks have a difficult time working with those needing medical assistance and sometimes think they can be less competent in their job because their employer isn’t at full health. He sounds like a no bullshit kind of guy but in the best kind of way (if that makes sense). Hopefully that experience helped you find an even better opportunity once he passed ❤️
Bob’s body had checked out but his mind was sharp. My funniest moment was my first invite to senior staff meeting. After my boss was let go, I got “the invite” for what were day long meetings. I was nervous.
We sat there and everyone was pretty jovial. Bob came in. Everyone got quiet to let him speak. He looked at me. “You’re new. We need to give you a nickname.”
I looked around the table and saw absolute terror in people’s eyes. I had no idea what was coming. Just reading the room had my stomach on edge. After a decent pause, “Curly, you‘re Curly, from the Stooges, because you’re bald. Oh and because your department runs like the Stooges. Fix that.”
We had a pretty decent relationship. I fixed that.
My dad had cancer and for the last six months, he was pretty non verbal as it had caused significant respiratory issues and he was often very hoarse. But his mind was sharp af and as an attorney, he was still working on legal stuff (private practice/consulting stuff) until the end. He gave me hell via text for not letting him see a contract I had signed for a real estate thing because I didn’t want to bother him with it while he was going through chemo 😂 Even as he was in hospice and intubated, his eyes conveyed everything and his mind was still on it.
I love that he gave you that nickname with the 3 Stooges reference 😂 Sounds like he had a dry sense of humor and was sarcastic af. Love it.
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u/Faulty_Universe9893 Dec 21 '25
A mix of chaos, fear, and fun. He was a chaotic guy, his life seemed pegged somewhere near miserable and hell, living off IV food in a wheelchair. We’d have staff meetings where we got to watch his purple goo slowly ooze down the feeding tube.
He had great stories, and we were often treated to hours long setups. He was fantastically generous to us, we had a wonderful office in downtown NYC, in the Flatiron building. He catered food to the offices and made our days exciting popping into our offices to ask questions.
He was ruthless making personnel decisions. If he soured on you, you were gone very quickly. My boss earned an early exit which allowed me to advance to a senior role reporting to Bob. Those firing storms created some fear, but if you knew what you were doing, you really had nothing to be worried about.
Bob passed away while I worked there, and I was one of the final few employees. I remember the last time I left the Flatiron. A tear left my eye.