People that Make You Say Aha!

On rare occasions you meet a person who makes a big impact on you professionally and personally; someone who profoundly changes your way of thinking. For me, one of those people was Dennis Wegenast. I met Dennis over 25 years ago when he was the NGS Advisor to Washington State. The thing that struck me right away about Dennis was his insatiable curiosity. He was full of questions. Not in an intense way, but in a patiently relentless way. He wanted to know why and how things worked, and more importantly, how they connected with other things. He was fascinated by what he didn't understand; thirsty for new information. And he talked to me like I was any other professional person, not distracted at all by my gender. 
Dennis was a rare person whose thinking and ideas were far ahead of his time. Three decades ago he was proposing that surveyors work onGrid. At that time, this idea was widely rejected by the land survey community. Now everyone carries a smartphone, spatially connecting them to everything. We're in the era of BIG DATA now. And Dennis, who was not good with computers, saw it coming and impatiently imagined and discussed its arrival.
I worked closely with Dennis developing the geodetic grid for King County when the county was building its Geographic Information System (GIS). It was a time when surveyors were vehemently opposed to what the GIS profession was doingwith good reason, since the GIS community didn't understand the business rules of survey/geodetic data at that time. Dennis was one of the first people I met that agreed with me that surveyors needed to be involved in the foundational layers of GIS. He worked tirelessly convincing the GIS profession that it needed surveyors. 
It was during this project that I realized that Dennis had an uncanny ability to look at tabular data and see patterns and anomalies. He once looked at a huge printout of thousands of coordinates and told me that the dataset was hosed. I asked why, what was he seeing? He didn't know, but he was certain, and I believed him.
What I learned much later is that the intuitive, right hemisphere of our brain can unconsciously identify patterns and anomalies that the logical, left hemisphere is mostly unaware of consciously. The right hemisphere nudges our left hemisphere with faint messages; what's often called a sixth sense or intuition. Most people filter out and dismiss these faint, vague messages as feelingsas in, I had a funny feeling about that. They're unable to entertain information that doesn't easily connect with their logical, conscious thoughts. It's literally that the left hemisphere won't listen to what the right hemisphere is saying.
The corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres of the brain. It is larger in women than men; allowing a bigger bandwith for intuitive thoughts. Some people are able to entertain intuitive messages in a kind of suspension until more data begins to fill in the missing connections and suddenly a clear conscious perspective is achieved. 
All of the intuitive people I've met are comfortable with a high degree of logical uncertainty which keeps the conscious brain from filtering out intuitive thoughts.
In this example, Dennis unconsciously saw a pattern in the coordinates that was too regular. I spent the evening staring at those coordinates, never perceiving what he saw. I went to bed thoroughly frustrated. The next morning I looked at the coordinates again, and the problem leapt off the page. Someone had changed the coordinate settings to architectural instead of engineering so that all of the decimal places were representations of a 16th of a foot. The rounding to three decimal places  initially fooled me, but didn't escape Dennis' finely tuned unconscious brain that saw too many 3s and 8s. If there had been a fourth decimal place it would've been obvious that there were too many decimals ending in the number 5. I had to sleep on it for my brain to process the information to a level that I could consciously recognize what the right hemisphere of my brain was perceiving. I use this technique regularly now.
Another time, Dennis told me that he didn't like the way a hardcopy list of coordinates looked. That time I never figured out what he was seeing, but when I check the coordinates against another trusted source, I found that they had been shifted. Wow, that made me the shiver.
Dennis's brain allowed him to be a natural lateral thinker with the ability to consider problems from multiple perspectives at once. He could suspend information that didn't immediately fit, letting both hemispheres of his brain work out the connections. It allowed him to consider new ideas and information that were beyond his current understanding without be intimidated or confused. He leaned in, observed, asked questions, voraciously consuming more information. Learning. Until suddenly the connections were made. He began offering astute observations, leaps of incite, making me see things from many more perspectives, helping me to expand my thinking. It was an amazing gift!
I've only met a handful of people like Dennis throughout my career. I've learned to identify these lateral thinkers by the following traits.
•Perpetually questioning and considering
•Slow to criticize what they don't understand
•Persistently searching for smarter ways of doing things
•Impatient that others aren't willing to entertain new ideas
•Always willing to teach and share

Dennis was less interested in being right than he was getting it right. He loved working with other people who were terminally, professionally curious without regard to what others in our profession believed. 
It takes great courage to think outside the box like Dennisunless, like me, you already don't fit in the box. Dennis made me see the professional grace I was afforded because I was differenta woman in a man's world. Another huge gift. He will be missed.

Karen Zollman
•Great senses of humor, quick to laugh at themselves
•Willing to risk being considered wrong (for years)

I should have mentioned Dennis's wife "Ginny and family" Also, my name is JOE LINDSAY, from Winchester, VA


Years back, I directed multiple Nation Geodetic Survey projects within Dennis's great state of Washington.  A very significant factor with respect to  ensuring the project success was the support of the State Advisor. Dennis's support was consistently outstanding.  He was the consummate, extremely knowledgeable, professional. Professionalism notwithstanding, Dennis was always extremely congenial and hospitable to us "out of towners."  My condolences to the family. One outstanding individual has left us. RIP

Grandpa iam so glad you are no longer in pain. I am so greatful to be your grandaughter. You have taught me many lessons that i will never forget. You were always there for me no matter what. I love you so much. Your doodle bugs.

Denny and I worked together on many different occasions, including field work and office work for NGS (The Coast Survey), ACSM workshops, as Geodetic Advisors and week end survey projects for beer money!  Denny and I, and our families, socialized together and he always had a good supply of home made wine when we were in Maryland!  Denny was a "can do" guy who always thought of ways to make things work, rather than reasons they wouldn't.  Condolences to all of his family and I cherish the memories of that big German, who I had so many good days with.  Rest In Peace Denny.

I counted Denny and a friend and mentor.  I had the great pleasure of working with him during our time together in the NGS Information Center and then again later after he had become of the NGS advisor - I my humble opinion he was one of the best advisors NGS ever had.  He was a professional, dedicated to public service and getting the job done right - a true Coast Surveyor.  My thoughts go to his family.  He will never be too far from our thoughts.

I just learned of the "big guy's" passing yesterday, as I was out of town. Although I was not able to attend the memorial service. Ironically, my thoughts were with Dennis, our favorite NGS Advisor and my personal mentor, on the day he was laid to rest as I traveled through Sequim, Washington. It was in Sequim that we set a High Accuracy Reference Network Station mark with the designation "Wegenast" to honor this fine man for his contribution to our unique surveying community. I owe much of my professional development to Dennis. He will continue to live in my memories whenever I look to the stars for navigating my own retirement. Until we meet again, my friend, Auf Wiedersehen.............

Denny is a great loss to the surveying community. We had many good times together searching for control points throughout Washington. He will be missed.

Our deepest sympathies to the Wegenast family.  He was a great guy and know that he will be missed.

A good friend, a great co-worker. We had wonderful times traveling through Alaska where Denny and I worked together. We also got together frequently in our roles as Geodetic Advisors for NGS. He is missed.

Dear Ginny and Family...Psalm 90:10 reminds us that an "average" lifespan is seventy years...but if by "resaon of strength," another decade.  We'll amend that average to add one more year, "if by reason of strength and Nort' Dakota heritage.   Even so, "average" is never enough time to spend with those whom we love.  God has placed eternity into our hands as a gift to sustain us when the lifespan, long or short, has come to an earthly close.  God be with and sustain you in the promise of John 14:1-7!

OBITUARIO

Dennis A. Wegenast

31 agosto, 1934 – 24 octubre, 2015

Evergreen Funeral Home & Cemetery

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