Any thought or memory of "Radar", as we called John, evokes a smile or a laugh.  I had the pleasure of knowing and working with Radar during the late '70's and early '80's in Columbia, SC during the infancy of PMS (Policy Management Systems).  Regarding Michel's comments on helping Radar with a problem, it's hard to believe Radar ever needing to go to someone else as he was the one totally inundated with needy users unable to solve a CICS problem!  He and Tom Wilds were Mutt and Jeff during those years and their relationship and constant fun bantering were a sight to behold.   I will forever enjoy visualizing Radar in his army jacket with his crinkling eyes and subtle smile as his brain was whirring  with yet another brilliant and unique thought or comeback.  He was most definitely one of a kind and dearly cherished. 

Many of us go through life knowing very few, if any, really remarkable people.  Fortunately, those of us who knew John can never say that.  John was, to use an overused term, a truly unique person.  I had the pleasure of knowing John at ADR and CA.  To illustrate his uniqueness I’d like to tell a couple of absolutely true stories. 

When ADR was acquired by CA, our offices moved to an office park in Las Colinas.  I will never forget how John would leave the office each evening.  He would load up a cardboard box with listings, manuals, and whatever else he thought he might need (John never really left work; it went with him). Now most people would have simply picked up the box and carried it to the car…but not John.  He perched the box on the top of his head and walked to his car, balancing the box all the way (with a little help from a hand now and then). That was quite a sight to behold.

But another story was truly pure “John”.  We had a serious problem in Italy with the product John worked on called CICS Services.  It was a tough problem and resisted all our efforts to solve it using dumps mailed back from Italy.  Finally we sent John to Italy to the customer’s site.  John walked into the data processing center, identified the problem, wrote the solution, and applied the solution…all in 15 minutes elapsed time!  Pretty darned remarkable.  But that is not the whole story.  After John returned home to Dallas, he realized he had left his hat at the customer site.  So we contacted the customer and asked if they had his hat and, if they did, would they please send it back.  The customer refused.  They said: Yes, we have his hat. It has been on top of our CPU since he left and we have not had any computer problems at all.  We will not send back his hat!

And these are just the first memories of many that occurred to me.  



In most people's life, we are not blessed with knowing very many absolutely unique people.  I believe that everyone who ever had the pleasure of knowing John was thusly blessed.  John was truly a person who made a huge impression on the people who met or worked with him.  I remember two very unusual and charming things about John, both of which are associated with his work. (I was a fellow-employee at ADR, which was the locus of these two events.)  
The first memory I would like to share is that on almost every day when he left after work, he would load a cardboard box with listings, manuals, and whatever else he might need later and take it home with him.  Now most people would have simply lugged the box to their car...but not John.  John would perch the box on the top of this head and walk to his car, balancing it and helping to steady it as he went.  It was a truly unusual sight watching him leave with his box balanced on his head!
The other thing was also associated with his work at ADR.  As everyone probably knows, John was a consummate data processing professional.  His technical knowledge was A+ and more.  So one time ADR sent him to Italy to debug a particularly difficult problem with our implementation of CICS Services.  He walked into the Italian computer center, identified and fixed the problem...all in about 15 minutes.  Truly astonishing.  But that is only part of the story.  Later he realized he had left his hat in Italy so ADR contacted the site and asked for his hat.  But the customer site said "When John left here, his hat was left on top of the CPU.  Since he left and since his hat has been there, we have never had another problem.  We will not return his hat!"

Anyone who works at BMC Software for some time becomes part of an extended family, and I am grateful to count John as part of that family. I first met him when he came to my office and I helped fix a problem he had. After lunch he reappeared and presented me with a nice poster he had bought to thank me for my assistance. That was John’s kind, generous heart.

Over the years we would occasionally have entertaining lunches. One day at Hoover’s when the server came by after the food was served and asked “How did everything come out?” without skipping a beat John replied “I’ll let you know in a couple of hours.” That cracked everyone up.

Lunch banter could include his sophisticated plan to rid his yard of tree rats using high voltage trip wires strung in the tree limbs and motion detectors (and maybe even lasers). Using standard rat traps would be too pedestrian and not nearly as satisfying. Other times he would talk about how the cozy relationship between former Computer Associates chairman Charles Wang and Senator Alfonse D’Amato protected Wang from prosecution.

Sharp as a tack, programming was definitely his calling. One day he came to my office convinced that someone’s approach to solving a problem was wrong, and he said he warned “those people”. To this day I have no idea who “those people” were.

One day he shared a closely guarded secret from his high school or college days, a prank involving salt and a rival team’s football field. Only his inner circle knew of this misdeed, and I am honored to have been included.

There is a treasure trove of stories involving our dear friend floating about that brought smiles and laughter whenever they were told.

My last interaction with John was when I ran into him and Marilyn in a Home Depot parking lot one hot summer afternoon. As they left I thought how they made a cute couple and were meant to be together.

Marilyn, know that you are part of the BMC family and please reach out if we can help.

OBITUARY

John Frank Rader III

21 August, 1950 – 1 February, 2019

Cook-Walden Chapel of the Hills Funeral Home

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