Posts Tagged ‘obituary’

Dave DePaolo: on the passing of a work comp giant and a fine human being

Tuesday, July 19th, 2016

It is with great shock and deep sadness that we learned of the untimely passing of Dave DePaolo. We send our most sincere condolences to his family and his colleagues.

Dave has been one of the most important voices in our industry and an online workers comp pioneer. He was founder and president of workcompcentral, one of the early online specialty media communities dedicated to news, education and data content to the workers’ compensation industry. He also maintained his own blog, DePaolo’s World, a regular stop for us here at Workers Comp Insider. We’ve relied on and linked to his keen insight here many times.

As an attorney, he had a sharp mind and a deep expertise in the many nuances of the workers compensation system. He was an educator to us all; passionate about the rights and wrongs of the system, and giving voice to the injured worker at the heart of the system. A remarkable man, his influence and voice will be missed. You can learn more about him at his workcompcentral biography. His posted obituary notice is here: DePaolo, WorkCompCentralCentral Founder, Dead at 56. In less than one day, it has amassing 4,500+ views and dozens of comments, well worth reading to get a sense of the impact he had on our community.

Here are two tributes from bloggers that we found moving because both go beyond the basic facts of his life and give a window into the man.

Life is short. Live it like David did. This blog post by Joe Paduda focuses on the way Dave lived his life to the fullest, including some personal details of his life that many of his regular readers may have been unaware.

Godspeed David DePaolo; You Were What Was Right in Workers’ Comp, and Your Voice Will Be Missed
This a warm and heartfelt tribute by Bob Wilson at his blog. Here’s an excerpt:

Exemplifying David’s passion towards our industry, one needs look no further than the CompLaude Awards. CompLaude is an annual effort created by DePaolo to recognize top achievers in our industry. It recognizes people from all sectors of comp, including injured workers; people who have achieved beyond the expected results normally seen in the realm of workplace injuries. David felt strongly that the workers’ compensation industry needs to highlight the good things we accomplish, and fight the persistent negative image cast upon us by external forces and bad players within the industry. He was right to insist on that – and David DePaolo was one of the good things workers’ comp needs to celebrate.

David was unique among industry bloggers because he wrote with a special human interest; he invited us into his home and shared his family with us, all while gearing the overall message to one applicable in workers’ comp. We became acquainted with his parents, following the lives of both his father and mother, through the aging process and related ailments to their ultimate passing. We celebrated their love and suffered his loss, all because David willingly invited us in and made us feel at home.

We’ve just seen the passing of WCRIBMA’s Paul Meagher here in Massachusetts, recently, too. Very sad time for our industry.  Take Joe Paduda’s advice as modeled by Dave: Live your life fully.

On The Passing of Paul Meagher

Tuesday, July 12th, 2016

Last week workers’ compensation lost a true professional and I lost a dear friend.

I first met Paul Meagher 32 years ago when he was Senior Counsel for Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) and I was a young guy who thought he had a big idea. The idea was that if employers were educated about workers’ compensation they would approach it differently and losses and Experience Modifications would fall.

Paul believed in the idea. Workers’ compensation was entering a ten-year crisis, and AIM, at the time the largest such organization in America, needed a solution for its members. So Paul convinced the AIM hierarchy to launch a series of seminars around Massachusetts with my big idea as the centerpiece. And it worked. When employers saw there was a common sense, management 101 solution they took to it like water finding a crack in the floor. It culminated five years later with the creation of the Massachusetts Qualified Loss Management Program, which, along with sensible legislative changes, ended the crisis. A $2 billion dollar problem turned into a $1.3 billion dollar win for the state and its employers.  And it never would have happened without Paul’s steady, shoulder-to-the-wheel work.

Paul went on to become the President of the Massachusetts Workers’ Compensation Rating & Inspection Bureau. He captained the Massachusetts workers’ compensation ship for 16 years until early Saturday morning, July 2nd, when he suddenly, but peacefully, died in his sleep in Maine on the first day of a much deserved vacation. He was only 64 years old.

If you met Paul you would have instantly underestimated him. He had not one gram of outsized ego in his body. His leadership style was calm, even quiet. He was perfectly happy to surround himself with people he judged smarter than himself. He played the steady, unassuming jockey sitting atop the speeding thoroughbred, nudging it along without the horse even knowing he was there. In a world of masses on the make, he just did his job, and the continued exceptional success of Massachusetts workers’ compensation is all the proof you need.

But worker’s compensation, while an important part of his legacy, pales beside the deeper, broader person who adored Addy, his wife of nearly 40 years, and Madeline and Michelle, his two accomplished daughters. When we talked about our families at our regular lunches he would ooze pride in those two young women. About a day and a half before he died we spent an hour on the phone, 40 minutes of which was devoted to his two daughters and my two daughters. He and I were entirely different people, but we were cut from the same cloth when it came to our pride in our children.

Paul made me understand why humility is such an important virtue. He was a successful person who could have flaunted his success, but never did, not for a minute; it just wasn’t in his nature.

The workers’ compensation industry will find a replacement for Paul Meagher. I won’t.