Lee Kempler

When I met Sameer: Feb 1986

Where Sameer and I spent time: McKinsey

What you remember and appreciated most about Sameer: His unwavering sense of right and wrong

Extended thoughts about Sameer. 

The news of Sameer’s passing shocked me into silence. For three weeks, I have thought about him, his life, our experiences together, and the ways our lives came together, moved apart, and occasionally came together again. Twenty five years later, I work in the very same office building where Sameer and I initially worked together. And I have been at a loss for words to explain what Sameer meant to me or how to come to grips with his passing. Today, through a completely random e-mail, I saw the following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children… to leave the world a better place… to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”

This struck me as a pretty good description of our friend Sameer. A success, indeed.