If ever there was a definition of “easy going” Phil eckert was that for me. You can add friendly and helpful to the list, and conscientious fits perfectly as well. One of my early interactions with Phil, probably circa 199 was around the security of DPCS (The in house batch/resource system LC used at that time.) I was looking to improve security of various things and mentions the increased emphasis on encryption for LC HPC, I believe it was in an LC morning meeting, and Phil told me that DPCS has encryption. Later, I stopped by Phil’s office after the meeting to find out more information, unencrypted protocols were mostly the norm at that time, to learn more. Phil swiveled around in his chair, and grabbed a printed copy of “Dr. Dobbs Journal” which had an article including source code, for an encryption method, that Phil and others on the DPCS project team had found and proactively implemented. I read the article, impressed that they had been so proactive, but then told Phil about recently installed OpenSSL, and requested that the encryption in DPCS be replaced with calls to the OpenSSL library, which was now available on all LC systems. Phil said “sure”, with that friendly positive attitude those that worked with him, knew him so well for. – J.A.