[Akash Rastogi]

After collecting my thoughts, I just wanted to say another thing about how Dave Beck affected me directly or indirectly.

At Philly when I talked to him for the first time, he actually already knew my name! I was thrilled at the thought of someone like him actually knowing about me. Me, a kid. Just another kid who looked up to this guy like another FIRST hero. In 2007 when I started FRC on MORT I asked our mentors who to talk to in order to learn more about FIRST, a few mentors came out such as Tim Leicht, Wayne Cokely, and then Mr. and Mrs. Beck(If you are from NJ, you know the significance of these people). Our mentors and team have great respect for anyone trying to establish a new sense of respect for engineering in their school district, and I think Mr. Beck is a testament to this. When I asked our mentors and the seniors in 2007 who our team looks up to the most, it was team 103 among the cream of the crop. Its difficult to understand how someone I've only talked to once can make such an impact on my thinking of FIRST and how a team should be run, but I have to be honest, the way he ran 103 is exactly how I want to run my future teams. Everyone on here can only hope that they can run a team half as well as Dave Beck ran 103, and that in itself is something amazing. Clearly, I wasn't the only person he affected with a brief discussion, but I d@mn sure know that I have all the respect in the world for him.

Mr. Beck, thank you for supporting my ideas for the future of FIRST teams everywhere, you will be missed terribly.