We all have mentors and teachers we can look back on and reflect on what we have learned. We all have that one bit of knowledge that stands out as the ultimate, the great light bulb going off in our head, the enlightenment of the world we work in. For me, it could have been Mrs. Horskey, my seventh and eighth grade English teacher, who beat grammar into my head, and said one day I would thank her. Well, every month that I sit down to write, I thank her.
But it was someone much later in my life who beat a similar lesson into my head. That one person was Paul Heilstedt, my first boss I had working in the field of plumbing codes. Interestingly, Paul has no background in plumbing; he is a structural engineer by education. Currently, Paul is the CEO of BOCA International and President of ICC, the publishers of the International Codes (including the International Plumbing Code).