XEROX MEMORIES OF DAVE MYERSCOUGH

As I have often said, Dave was the second best marketing person in the world….they’er still looking for the first..!!!!

Shelby Carter






29 Jul 2009 Xerox Corporate Announcement

David Myerscough, former marketing chief, passed away at 68

A memorial service for David Myerscough was held earlier this month at the Mariners Chapel in Irvine, Calif. He was 68 years old when he died.

David was a longtime Xerox executive; his last assignment was senior vice president of Corporate Business Strategy. He assumed that position after leading United States Customer Operations, our domestic sales and marketing organization at that time. David joined Xerox in 1964 as an area sales representative in Anaheim, Calif. He held a number of sales and marketing positions in California before he joined the former Latin American Group in 1976. He continued his rise through the ranks, and was named a corporate officer in 1984 when he was president of the former Business Products Division. David’s global assignments included director of the Marketing and Customer Services Organization for Rank Xerox Limited, as well as president of Americas Operations.

Upon retirement from Xerox, David moved to California.

Oh Yea, I Remember "Sparky" Myerscough:
-I remember the old green Buick Rivera
-I remember he walked on the sides of his shoes
-the green Prince tennis racket
-I remember at a meeting when he introduced a new timing for the field bonuses.....Tri-Semesters
Otto and I just looked at each other like the AFLAC duck in the Yogi Berra commercials
-I remember at staff meetings when the cookie tray would arrive...David would slowly go over and break a cookie in half then proceed to eat the entire tray a half cookie at a time.
-One of my first meetings as a Sales Ops Mgr. David's group met with Fred Henderson's Marketing Group. Towards the end of the meeting David flew into a tirade and walked out, slamming the door. Immediately, Roy Hathorne tried to put things into perspective and said something like: David is sometimes his own worst enemy". "Not while I'm alive he isn't" said Fred Henderson. Boy, those were the days.
-I worked for Dave Myerscough for over five years in three different positions and I'm yet to get a performance review.
-I talked with David a few weeks after he followed Barry Rand as the President of USCO. I asked him how it was going and he told me that "keeping up with Barry's promises is like reading Playboy magazine while your wife turns the pages"
-Dave's career is just like show business. He had a big opening, then he coasted for a while. Then he had a big finish
-I also remember David saying:
Roughly Right
Not on my watch
Shelby and I have a love/hate relationship
The BPD five-year plan is in development
But the finest lesson I learned from David was the "Leather Book". After his brother died suddenly he swore that he would always be prepared and he developed the leather book. A simple binder with tabs for all the important personal pieces of information: mortgage, life insurance, stock and bank accounts, etc. I have the very same book on my desk tonight and it is up to date.

Thanks David from Ed Ryan

David was a true friend and mentor in my career. He was a great example of the culture of Xerox, a man who worked hard, played hard and loved his family, his friends and the customers.

The most unique moment with David was he loved to collect Olympic pins. He spent more time in the hallways in Norway trading pins than he did watching the events. On the bus to one event I hid David's hat which was loaded with pins and I did not tell him for two hours. David was more upset about not locating his trading pins than any business issue that I worked with him on. He left the Olympic games in Norway with at least one suitcase full of pins.

On a serious note, I will miss David's humor and his friendship. He was always there for you and he made work a great learning experience and a lot of fun. His sayings, i.e., 'Roughly Right', will always be the measure of the man. David was a Marketing genius who gave me my biggest opportunity early in my career to be his VP of Marketing. I will always thank him for that. The opportunity to learn from him was a great experience.

I wish Pinkie and his children the best. Regards,
Mike MacDonald

XEROX TRIP TO REMEMBER

Dave was my friend for over 40 years and there are many interesting Xerox “Myerscough” stories I could share with you, but there is one story which I have told many times that is a classic. In fact, in December, when we commuted up to the Xerox luncheon together we discussed the story again and had a great laugh.

In the late 70’s when Dave was National Sales Manager he created a national supply promotion, with the winners awarded a trip to Canada – Banff Springs Hotel, on Lake Louise and an overnight train trip to Vancouver, through the Canadian Rockies. There were about 100 winners and Xerox staff on the trip. You were probably on the trip.

Xerox had chartered the whole train, which had a rock and roll band at one end of the train and a blues band at the other end of the train. When we all boarded the train everybody headed to the libation stations, which were little bar stands located through-out the train. The bar tenders were overwhelmed with the crush of people requesting cocktails and so they just started handing out whole boxes of the liquor to us, which were those little 1 or 2 oz bottles like you get on airplanes, to anybody who asked. Each box had 25 of those little bottles in them.

About an hour out of Banff the train slowed to a crawl, and then came to a dead stop in the middle of this little town. When we inquired about the stop we were advised the bartenders had given out ALL the liquor that was on board the train and we were out of booze.

Dave and one of his staff got off the train, commandeered a local citizen’s pick up truck and drove to the nearest liquor store. Dave proceeded to buy out the store’s total inventory of booze. They brought it back, loaded it on the train, and off we went, partying all the way to Vancouver.

When we got off the train the conductor told me he had been with the railroad for 40 years and that was the first time they had run out of liquor.

Of the 20+ trips Maria and I took on Xerox’s nickel that was the most memorable.

Andy Props


I met Dave in 1964, when I interviewed him for a sales position with Xerox .
During the interview I asked Dave to sell me a Cross Pen. (We all did that in those days.) Dave, not only sold me the pen, but he was so good, I bought 5 more from him.
Needless to say, I hired him. Even then Dave was a aggressive, ego minded competitive know it all guy, and guess what? He backed everything up with results.
His first assignment with Xerox, was a Junior Sales rep, reporting to me. Wow did we have fun. His compensation was a small salary of about $300 per month and 26% of my total commission for the month. He wasn't too happy with that program, since he had to do all the work. During that time, we or I mean Dave, were very successful. He had a knack that didn't allow anyone to say no.

One of many favorite stories of that time, was when my largest account leased a 914 for a specific library application. They wanted us to teach them and spend the day with them and train all the operators. Well, I couldn't do it for two reasons..One I had a tennis game that day, and I wasn't that knowledgeable about the Dewey decimal system. So, I had a chat with Dave, and convinced him he was from Rochester and was the specialist for Libraries. With that in mind, he spent the day at the account teaching the applications. Trust me, he had no clue what he was doing, but he was great.

Over the years, Dave and I remained very close. Our Daughters were born on the same day, same year. Dave and I celebrated our Daughters 21st Birthday in San Francisco.
During Football season, we talked every Sat. and Sunday for 15 years. Who do you like, or what's the line on the games. We talked so much sports, you would think we know what we were talking about.. We didn't

A great friend, and quite a guy. I cannot tell you how much I will miss him.

My Love to the Family. Jack Blumin

PS.
He never forgave me for giving him a letter of warning for allowing the Angel Baseball team to cancel a 813. They said the machine had too many jams. Hard to believe. Over the years, we would often talk about the letter and I would remind him the the letter made him a better person and look what happened to his career.OLYMPIC PINS

Dave had the finest memory of anyone I have ever met. He remembered what was said by everyone in every meeting and there was a lot of meetings. The fun time I remember most is when his Olympic Pins were taken when he went to the bathroom on the bus in Lillihammer, Norway. David had a sulking temper when anyone touched his Olympic pins.
The most fun was to watch him trade pins in Atlanta, GA at the summer Olympics, I am not sure he saw any events.
We loved him and we was terrific to both work with and work for. He will be missed but always remembered.

Irene & Jim Brown

Only one story of Dave:
I was in the Los Angeles Downtown Branch of Xerox. The Branch Manager Jack Burns appointed me to the new Duplicator Specialist position which was basically to help the Sales Force sell the bigger machines particularly the newer Xerox 7000 reduction machine. The lead branch in this idea was of course Oakland led by non other than Dave. Jack said go to Oakland and see what they are doing there to sell so many---so I went to Oakland to see Dave---and sure enough he had come up with all the ideas for prospects to use reduction. Get them to use 2 sided reduced copies to save space, get 4 copies on one sheet by reducing 2 letter sizes on each side etc etc add many different applications etc. Dave was always way out front in marketing. The past year he has come to my office a number of times for investment projects we are both in, one he joined me on and one I joined him on. I will miss him. God bless him!!

George P Economos

David was blessed with a wonderful sense of humor in addition to his terrific family who were always so dear to him. We will miss him and will be forever entertained with our stories and the very best memories of our time together. No one can say "Roughly Right" or "Here comes Sparky" without an instant image of Dave.
When Rich worked for Dave, he would call me at home from Xerox headquarters in Stamford, CT on a Wednesday at 2 in the afternoon and ask to speak to Rich. Well Rich was in Stamford with Dave, wasn't he. Dave would say, Is that what he told you?
He thought it was to funny to get Rich in trouble.

I did love it when Dave and Rich went shopping for Pinkie and I.. The question was were they with a realtor or at the jewelry store!

In Loving memory of a kind and thoughtful man, our dear friend. Blessings
Rich and Cyndee Cutri


1) When I was a Branch Manager in Tampa, Dave & Dwight Ryan asked me to come back to Rochester in 1982 to launch the “10 Series Products” as the Low Volume Program Manager. My 1st week in Xerox Square, I met Dave on elevator @ 6 PM going down all excited and Dave said simply, Hi Bill, Did you sell your house in Tampa? When I said yes,; his response was, Dam and my face dropped…he let me get all the way down and as we were getting off elevator, he said…..”Gotch Ya” and just kept walking. A sense of humor, albeit at my expense.

2) I was presenting a price discount program I was testing as a pilot program called “Match Pricing” in the Board Room on 029. Dave held up a letter from David Kearns saying Joe Wilson would turn over in his grave if he knew I was recommending discounting price at the rep level. When I finished presenting my recommendation to go National, Dave simple said sit down. He then said if it doesn’t work and the average Achieved Price falls below what I put in the plan, I will fire you….”Do you still want to recommend we go National?” With my knees shaking under the table, I said Yes. Dave hesitated for at least 30 seconds and then said in front of everyone, “Right Answer”! Many years later he said he was testing my conviction!

3) When I was the Western Region VP and Dave was on the Q-Matrix Board, I asked him to help me to develop a strategy to do a cost-per-impression for printers. He came around so much, I gave him an office on the 16th floor in Santa Ana…..big mistake as at least 3 times a day he would open my door whether I was in a meeting or on the phone and state “What the #)*! is wrong with our company” “I want you to call Mike MacDonald or if you don’t feel comfortable taking the action, I will and get this BS fixed” “So when are you going to call” After a few months of this, I had to say to Dave, “You know I don’t work for you anymore!” His response, So What’s your point!” “You know I am Roughly Right so just get it done” “When will you close the loop with me?” was the last thing he said as he walked out the door. He gave me more action items as a retired Corporate Officer then my real Boss did.

A leader ahead of his time, a great strategist, loyal, as long as one did not BS and a friend who left too early….I guess the “Sky Boss” needed a strategist to fix heaven.

Love Bill Ernisse

BEST FRIENDSHIP
There are many things which stand out as memories of the 40 years of friendship with David. One was when I was still at Xerox in 1971 working as the launch manager for the new 4000 product. We had very strict allocation of machines, and all the branches were competing for the most sales. Dave was at Oakland at the time and for some reason, we were coming up short a couple of machines. After much frustration on everyone’s part, we found two machines that Dave had “stashed away” in an effort to make certain his branch was the most competitive and came out in the first group for initial sales. We all know Dave’s competiveness and desire to be #1! This was indicative of his success.

In recent years, we were invited for dinner at his beautiful beachfront home in Laguna Beach. Dave was so proud of his home and enjoyed showing us through it and all the new additions he and Pinkie had made. It always seemed, though, that we would always end up on the balcony barbecuing, and more importantly for Dave, he made certain we try to get a glimpse of his next door neighbor, Heather Locklear!

It was a privilege to work with Dave on his financial planning over the years. His priority was to make certain there would be financial security for the Myerscough family and he certainly accomplished that.

Barney and Wendy Whitesell

DAVE & SHERI’s 2005 HURRICANE CRAWL
It started out like any other business trip; 4:30 am Town Car to LAX; bleary-eyed stumble onto AA for a non-stop to Ft. Lauderdale. But in the middle of this trip, Hurricane Katrina came calling.

We nervously took a small airplane tour of the Marina’s in the Florida Keys on Wednesday followed by meetings all day Thursday, August 25th. That evening the start of the outside “hurricane bands” began to pummel the East Coast of Florida. We finished a Client dinner and arranged to meet another Client for drinks in Abacoa, just slightly inland from West Palm Beach.
We were surprised to find six business associates in a street front bar – surrounded by wall to wall people. This was to be our first official Hurricane Crawl. As Californians, we had become desensitized to Earthquakes; frequently describing the magnitude while continuing to sip our Lattes. We now came to see that Floridians had the same attitude toward Hurricanes. The “Crawl” is a large group of people that converge on an entertainment area that hosts multiple restaurant/bars within walking distance of each other. They drink, dance and between Hurricane strength wind blasts move from bar to bar.
Now Dave and I wanted to be cool, so we hid our trepidation and bellied up to the bar at the biggest bar scene we had ever witnessed. I quickly determined that these people were serious about their drinking and the goal of the “crawl” may be to go home that way! We ordered 2 Gin&Tonics and proceeded to hoot & holler with the rest of the crazies, every time the wind marker passed 75 mph. Those of you who know Dave know he’s competitive and this night that was his downfall.
Before finishing our first drink, Dave excused himself to use the Men’s room. The Bartender asked me if we wanted another round for us and our six fellow “crawlers”. I said “Yes, please” and handed him a $20 with instructions to run a tab BUT for the rest of the evening make my Gin & Tonic only Tonic. Although we were within walking distance of our hotel, I was nervous about the Hurricane. Not so much, Dave!
The Hurricane blew, the Crawlers drank and a big time was had by all. Later in the evening, we went out to the Valet and got in our car. Dave staggered into the passenger seat and said this “Sheri (it may have been SSSShhhhheri) I have travelled the world and done business over drinks in a dozen countries, but I have never, ever seen a woman hold her liquor like you do. I’m embarrassed to admit, but I had to stop after the 5th round since I’m in my cups”.
I started laughing hysterically and told him that I hadn’t had but one drink all night. He looked me in the eye, blinked twice and said “then it’s your job to keep the dog’s off the porch” and fell asleep in the car.

L.Sheri Grady-Merkle

David hired both of us in 1968 and I stayed with the company for 37 years and Roger for 3 1/2 years. I first spotted Roger when his sales team used to come into Coco's for their breakfast meetings on Fridays. Jon Giberson gave me a business card and said if I ever wanted to change jobs to give him a call. I found out there was going to be an opening for a receptionist and I wanted to interview. David actually interviewed me when I waited on him for lunch one day. I was hired 3 months later and the rest is history.

Short story: The sales force were low on their numbers and Dave called a meeting and gave them hell. At the end of the meeting he told them to leave early, go home and say hello to your family. When he came out of the meeting he had tears in his eyes. Told me he hated that part of the job. He loved all of them so much. Love to you Pinkie
Roger and Bette Sprague

Dave came to Cal Poly in 1967 and interviewed me. I remember Dave walking through the sales room at the Claudina office in Anaheim, CA in the late 1960's. He knew just what to say to each of us to motivate us for the day. For a college “frat boy,” he was a very effective manager!

Our daughters were the only two babies in the nursery at Martin Luther Hospital in Fullerton and they got lots of attention
Thanks Dave

Jon A. Giberson


I wanted to share a moment that has stayed with me over the years and I remember it like it was yesterday.

As a young recent college grad from back East I decided to move West and look for my first job in Jan. of 1971. A recruiter sent me to interview with Xerox, which I wasn't crazy about because I didn't want to go into sales. I decided to go on the interview just for experience and ended up speaking with Dave when he was the Branch Manager in Oakland.

After about an hour interview with Dave he asked me take a brief test. I was in the demo room taking the test when he came and asked me if I wanted the job. I told him that I hadn't even finished the test yet, but he quickly said "don't worry about the test, you'll pass". Since I really didn't know anything about Xerox or what they did I asked him what was expected of new sales rep.

He quickly pointed to a very large copier with sorting bins on the side at the end of the demo room and in his typical overly-simplified fashion said "see that machine over there, you just have to sell one of those in a month. If you sell it in a week, hell, you can go play golf for 3 weeks. Can you do that"?
I of course said "I could probably sell one of anything if I had a month to do it". He then said, "so do you want the job"? I took the job, left the office with my head spinning since I didn't know what I got myself into and went on to a successful 17 year career with Xerox thanks to Dave..

He had a way of bringing everything down to basics and giving you the confidence to succeed no matter what. I was fortunate to work in his organization for several years and always marveled at his creativity, leadership, and humor.

I have many great memories, but this is the one I usually tell people when they asked what it was like at Xerox.

Jim Uffleman


I was 22 years old (some 40 years ago) and had worked at the Oakland Branch of Xerox for about 6 months when we were told a new Branch Manager, the first official branch manager Xerox Oakland was to have, had been assigned. I had been pretty successful in my first 6 months with Xerox but on the month that the new Branch Manager, Mr. David Myerscough, had arrived I was not having a good month. One of the first things I remember Dave doing was putting up in the sales room his “Help Me, Hurt Me” board. If you were on the “help me” side of the board you were helping Dave and the branch achieve its goals and would be invited to join Dave and the other “winners” at the Hillcastle Bar and Grill next to the Oakland Branch. This was considered quite an honor. If you were on the “hurt me” list, you simply knew you were not helping the situation.

My first remembrance of meeting Dave was outside his office in the hallway. I remember him looking at me and then up at his famous board and saying “ I was told that you were good and you’re on the hurt me side of the board.” Needless to say, I was beside myself !
Shortly thereafter, I moved to the better side of that miserable board and never moved to the “hurt me” side again. The other entertaining event I remember out of the Oakland Branch was when Dave and The Pink decided to move to Walnut Creek which, just happened to be my sales territorial assignment. A weekend would hardly pass when Dave would not come into the office on Monday and hand me someone’s business card where he had noticed that they "did not have a Xerox machine." It could be his cleaners, his electricians or his plumbers business or home! I found myself canvassing every known location in and around their new home. It wasn’t so much the humiliation of it all, it was more that none of us wanted to disappoint Dave. He had become our hero and that never changed over the next 40 years.

Later in life after Dave and Pinkie had retired, they wanted to move to California and by this time, after 23 years with Xerox, I had gotten into residential real estate. Dave called me to find him a house near the ocean. I sent him all the listings currently on the market and we made our first adventure into looking for the perfect house. Let me say at this point, and this fact never changed, DAVE LOVED TO LOOK AT HOUSES. With some clients you may see 8 or 10 houses that both you and they have been interested in, but with Dave you saw the entire MLS (multiple listing service). Sometimes over the years we would see 14 houses in a given day and other days simply 8. Well, one of the first houses I showed them was in a wonderful private Laguna community called Lagunita. The home was very nice and on the beach, but the flaw to this particular oceanfront home was that a part of it overlooked the condo development next door and this bothered all of us. I just mentioned to Dave that there was a home, rather grand in scale, just up the street and we could walk to it.(He later claimed with great glee that I “up sold” him). Dave, The Pink and Heather and me entered this amazing home and all of us began to smile at its grandeur. From that point forward we called it the “over the top home.” Both Dave and Pinkie and Heather just loved this home. We put in our offer with the seller and after much negotiation (including me working with the U S Coast Guard to bring up the buoy that Dave owned in the ocean -- later sunk) we were all set to close the deal. To everyone’s shock at the last minute the seller had decided he was not pleased with his realtor and decided to hold out paying the commissions, not just to him but to me as well. I called Dave to say, “don’t worry about my commission, get the house and I’ll work out the details on the commission later, don’t risk loosing the house Dave, it’s a good deal and you’ll do very well on this house. I would rather know you own this beautiful house even if I get nothing for commission.” Dave said little and we hung up the phone.

Shortly thereafter assuming that we were "closing" the next day, we all got a call from the panicked escrow officer who said, “Mr. Myerscough has said that he will not buy the house or close on the house unless his realtor is paid his full commission.” The escrow officer was in shock, she said, “I have been doing this for 20 years and this has never happened before and a buyer has never said that before.” I immediately called Dave and said I appreciated his thoughtfulness but “please don’t loose the house because of some commission.” He simply said, I’m not buying the house until you are paid. Needless to say, the house closed and we were all paid immediately! Can you even imagine having that level of loyalty and integrity and lack of selfishness? Well, THAT WAS DAVE.

Dave and I looked at hundreds and what seemed like thousands of houses over the years together and I can’t remember not laughing or smiling or telling old or new stories as we traveled together in the car. He always said he’d drive because he said,“you have the worst sense of direction, we’ll get lost if you drive.” Dave and I just developed a stronger and more wonderful friendship over the years and that allowed us to say anything on our minds to each other, because we always knew the heart was in the right place. One of the things they say makes for a good friendship is respect and humor and we had plenty of that to go around. We got to know each other’s quirks and hot buttons and would so enjoy playing with them. I used to love to say things to Dave like: “should I buy dinner again, although I think it is the third time in a row (it really wasn’t),” or “The Pink and I have decided that we are done looking at houses” or “why don’t I drive for a change, your driving is starting to scare me,” or “you’re not going to put those plaques of yours back up on the wall after the remodel are you,” or our favorite, “nice desk Dave, of course you can’t see it.” He would just roll his eyes or laugh. You see, when you respect someone as much as we ALL loved and respected Dave there was just no way you couldn’t smile.

There were lots of wonderful characteristics in Dave and more stories that just keep rushing back but one thing was for sure, Dave was the kindest man I have ever met, he was the smartest and wisest man I have ever met, he was the sweetest man I had ever met, he was the loyalist man whom I ever met and he was by far the strongest human being I had ever met. Dave was always there for his friends and family and somehow you just knew you had to do your best to please and never disappoint him. Dave changed many lives and mine was but one.

With all of Dave’s strengths there was one thing of which he was the most proud and that was his family. Dave just loved “his Pink”, Heather, Tod, Brian and Marwa and his new granddaughter Paige with all his heart. Over 40 years I never remember him not getting a smile on his face when he talked about them. For with all of Dave’s amazing business accomplishments,it was his family for which he was the proudest.

I will miss you Dave more than you can imagine but I also know that you are in Heaven and watching and caring and helping to guide our every move. Thank you for all the wonderful times we shared over so many, many years and for allowing me to be part of your amazing family whom I have grown to love so very much.

Bob Boyd

David touched many people’s lives in so many ways and I am no exception to that. My first introduction to David was when I was given the honor to join the National Account Manager team for the Kinko’s account. My job was to manage the color strategy. I was somewhat intimidated knowing that David Myerscough was the focused Executive on the account. During my 7 years as being a NAM on the Kinko’s account David not only became a mentor professionally but I am honored to say he was my friend. He was tough when he needed to be but had a tender side that appreciated. He always, and I mean always thought outside the box. There was no one better than David at Marketing, developing a compensation plan that motivated people, knowing the right way to structure a pricing plan to get the business and never would except no.
I have so many stories and memories in my heart that will always be remembered. One liners that David was famous for, the fast sentences that I became to understand perfectly and most of all the true amazing character that he possessed.
I will miss him very much.

Wendy Meuser

I was a ASR (sales trainee) under Dave in the old Xerox Anaheim Branch. His first Sales Manager position. Dave's pep talks were full of words the meaning of which only Dave knew....and most certainly would have made Mr. Webster roll his eyes. One of my favorites of Dave was "STABABILITY". Some version of stable. Dave was a friend, teacher, motivator, and mentor. Although I didn't see him very often after he left the "Western Region" our meetings were always warm and enjoyable.

One of my most memorable accomplishments was in 1967 working for Dave in Anaheim during the "ONE MORE 24 CONTEST". He challanged me to beat two other Reps on Dennis Gafney's team; Jim Pond and Lou Delcastillo. He said if I sold 10 2400's in the 2 month contest he'd give me a $150/month raise in January 1978 (my salary in 67 was $400/mo.) I said, "How about if I sell more than 10?". He said he'd give me an extra $50/mo. for every one over 10. Well, I sold 14 and Dave boss didn't let him give me more than a $200.00 month raise. Thereafter, every time I spoke with Dave I would say something to the effect of; "Well Dave, based on the number of years since you made your promise, and at a modest interest rate of 6 or 7%, you now owe me $75,263.75. " (Actually he's now in the hole over $175,000.) I'll always hold that IOU proudly.

Dave Myerscough.....a truly good person and friend.

Terry Kelman

AN ODE TO DAVE by CHUCK OTTO

On July the first of sixty-four
Dave walked through Xerox’s door
Fresh out of college, wet behind the ears
Who would have thought he rise through the years

At Long Beach State he majored in beer
His claim to fame was leading a cheer
Described as a hell-raiser by his TKE brothers
Academic prowess he left to all of the others

It was there her met Pinkie, oh what a find
What did she see in him—was she out of her mind
A diamond in the rough she must have surmised
For as it turned out, we all were surprised

As a rookie at Xerox, Dave showed a few flaws
He stuttered and stammered giving management pause
Jack Blumin, his boss, tried firing him twice
But Dave perservered and Jack rolled the dice

Hard work and determination were his keys to success
Salesman of the month and the year—he was the best
Promoted to manager he taught his troops well
If they failed to perform, Dave gave them hell

Yes, a temper he had and when he let loose
You’d get out of his way before he kicked your caboose
He’d shout and swear and get red in the face
And mix the King’s English all over the place

My favorite one-liner when he once blew a gasket
Was “this place is going to shit in a hell basket”
Or when arguing “I’m wougly wight” he would boom
And we thought Elmer Fudd had entered the room

Up to the Bay Area he would ascend
And once again this was not a dead end
Oakland and San Francisco they rose thru the ranks
With Dave at the helm—they owe him their thanks

Then on to the Region where Dave led the charge
To #1 in the U.S.---that was quite large
Aggressive marketing and programs they were the key
He created and sold them with great energy

Dave was competitive in all that he did
He hated to lose and that was not hid
Whether throwing a racquet or flinging a putter
He’d curse and stomp then walk away with a mutter

Nevertheless off to Rochester the family did go
And once again Dave put on quite a show
He formed a Division, BPD was its name
The concept was sound, the performance was lame

But in spite of its numbers, Dave moved ahead
And off to Connecticut he was led
To lead Latin America was his next big position
Where he inspired those countries with his determined disposition

The next notch in his belt was to the England of Jolly Old
Where Dave raised the bar with marketing bold
Rank Xerox had never seen such a whirling dervish
And if anyone got in his way, he was ready to skirmish

Then back to the States to lead the U.S.
And finally to headquarters as chief strategist
Success was his hallmark each step of the way
And we remember his legacy day after day

David Ralph Myerscough was a mentor and friend
to hundreds of admirers right to the end
And those memorable moments we each have of Dave
Will live on in the future as treasures we save