Carla Robinson was an anomaly in the technology business. She dedicated most of her career to one company. Carla spent the bulk of her career at R.R. Donnelly, and when the company split, joined one of the spin-offs, LSC Communications. She worked with AS/400 systems and wrote RPG code. It was hours of staring into green screens and sorting through reams of sequential code. She kept a legacy system alive, and as the technology business changed, she rolled with these changes.
I knew Carla as her scrum master. She was learning how to write C# code and unit tests. What made her invaluable to her team was her manual testing skills and her business knowledge. Often, she was able to answer questions about the product and how it helped the business. She was a person of good spirits when times were tough. Finally, she would not accept grief from anyone and demanded respect.
She loved Bessie Smith, vintage Prince, and anything to do with dusty radio. She was a colleague and to many a friend. The world is a little less fascinating without her. I imagine her enjoying some step dancing in the afterlife and feeling a sense of pride about a life and career well lived.
Fair forward and not farewell, Carla.
You summed up Carla and her spirit well. Thanks for taking the time give her the well deserved honor.
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