Quite sad to hear the news today of the passing of Russ Okawa.
Back in my early days at QBP Russ was working for Sachs and we would see each other at the CABDA trade show in Chicago. Russ would insist on taking a group of us downtown for dinner at his favorite restaurant. It was not easy or quick getting from Rosemont, where the show took place, to downtown. But the food was good, the conversations were highly entertaining and it was Russ’ treat after all.
I remember one year clearly. It was a great meal and a late night and we had all consumed a bit too much food and drink so we were feeling pretty happy about life. Russ picked up the tab as usual and we all started to head out when my fellow QBPer Rudy happened to notice the bill. It was pretty huge but what stood out was that Russ totally forgot to leave a tip. This was pretty out of character for him and we quickly deduced that Russ was probably feeling better than all of us and just over looked it. So we discreetly collected some money between us and left a nice tip without alerting Russ. He was such a great guy none of us wanted to embarrass him or make him feel bad.
First thing the next morning Russ came hustling over to the QBP booth with the news that he was planning on heading back downtown that evening to visit the very same restaurant for dinner because he realized that morning that he had totally forgotten the tip and felt horrible about it. He was worried that they would never let him eat there again if he did not clear it up that night!
We finally had to come clean that we had taken care of everything the night before and, though he insisted numerous times, we refused to let him pay us back for the tip since he had been such a great host and friend to us in past years.
Russ was a great guy and he’ll be missed by many.
