Our valued colleague Wally Pascale passed away suddenly in October 2005.  At the time I said:  Wally is (it is still hard for me to say was) one of my dearest, closest friends.  He was much more than that. 
To begin with, Wally was an exceptionally bright, able, business person.  He had the ability to grasp and work with complex multidimensional concepts, and as a teacher help others to see them, as if they were simple truths.  Wally not only taught, he lead.

He combined a wealth of knowledge with compassion for others, creating that rare quality, which always put you at ease, even when dealing with difficult matters.  He was self confident and knew who he was and how much he could and did helped those with which he came in contact.  Thus, he always conveyed that it was about you and what he could do to help you do better, not about him.

If you were going to fight a “war,” Wally was the man you wanted in the “fox hole” next to you.  You knew, you could always count on him to put things in prospective, light the way for you to choose and follow the right path, encourage you if you faltered, and be there for you no matter what.

He instinctively knew how to provide leadership of the best, most thoughtful kind.  He led by example.  He loved the rough and tumble of gentle kidding, never taking it personally, permitting his competitive nature to outperform without bruising others.  In the company of a collection of truly outstanding accomplished CEOs, Wally stood out as an exceptional human being.  Our mentor, confident, friend, leader - like a father to some, an older brother to others - always respected and much loved.

For more than 20 years, I have looked forward with joy to when I would be with him again.  It was until now, the one thing you could count on.  If things were dark, Wally would bring thoughtful cheer.  If you questioned could you succeed, Wally instilled in you, the belief that with your hard effort, through his confident encouragement, all would be right.  Mentor, confident, friend, leader, Wally was there for us, giving voice to our hopes and dreams, and shape to our wants and needs, working and playing alongside of us.

He could not have done it without Joyce and his family.  He drew strength and self-awareness from them, molding his immense qualities into the complex enduring person he was.  He fondly remembered his mother and father and what he had learned from them.  Wally knew he was blessed by God to pass through this life surrounded by so many opportunities to share with friends and family.  He gave us far more than he took and the lives of each of us he touched are truly enriched by his having shared his time with us.

As my business colleague his bio on our web site explained that Wally Pascale served for 7 years as Dean of the Graduate School and College of Business at Lewis University.  He combined over twenty years business management and leadership experience with academic and consulting activities.  This blend of hands-on business experience, consulting activities, and continuing academic involvement formed a unique prospective for assisting individuals and companies to identify and solve business challenges.

Professor Pascale had worked with an expansive range of public and private companies of all sizes and from a broad range of industries.  He served as a member of numerous Boards of Directors.  He spent fifteen years working for such notable companies as Xerox, Borg Warner, and the Harris Trust and Savings Bank.  He had experience in merger and acquisition strategies including post merger cultural integration.  He fully understood what entrepreneurship required, having owned and built a successful company that pioneered the development and delivery of training programs for the real estate industry. Professor Pascale was a group chairman for The Executive Committee, a worldwide leadership development organization for CEO's and their direct reports.  At the time of his death as well as being a principal of L.R. Levin Consulting, L.L.C., he was a tenured professor at Lewis University teaching classes in the areas of Human Resource Management, Sales, Sales Management and Real Estate.

His formal education was a concentration of business, social studies and law, while attending Indiana University, DePaul University, and John Marshall Law School.

We miss him.