Owen Cherrington, A Personal Tribute

I just received an email newsletter from the Rollins Center for eBusiness at BYU containing this article – http://ebusiness.byu.edu/newsletter/news.cfm?newsletterid=59&id=186.

Out of all the professors I had at BYU I don’t believe I had more one on one talks with any of them more than with Owen. The last time I talked with Owen was a few years ago. I wanted to talk with him after he got cancer but I never had the opportunity.

When I arrive at BYU in 1998 Owen was the head of the Information Systems program in the Marriott School of Management. I was trying to get into this program with the hopes of getting both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in information systems management.

I went to talk with Owen many time about what I needed to do in order to get into the program, and he was always very kind and took time to listen to me ramble on about whatever it was that interested me. I spent many hours in his office talking and I always appreciated that he was willing to take time out of his busy schedule to pay attention to me, as though he didn’t have anything else to do.

I also took at least one class from Owen and had a good experience in it. He was very professional and I liked the fact that he wasn’t just an academician but had some real world experience as well.

Seeing Owen in the hallways of the Tanner Building and saying “hi” was as common as anything during the four years I was in school at BYU until I got my masters.

Owen was a good man and I’m not sure I would have made it through my school programs without his generosity in mentoring me. I considered him a friend and his faith in me and his encouragement was a motivating force for me to stick with my goals.

I’m sorry I wasn’t able to talk to him during the last two years as he fought with cancer and wish I had tried harder to set up a meeting or something. I hope to see him again someday and just as I was able to make it through school I hope I can make it through life and follow his example of honesty, hard work, and strong character and as I probably said to him after my graduation tell him “Hey, I made it. Can you believe it?”