The Life of an Application Developer / New World Technologist (1995-2017)

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Casey Lewellyn McDonnell is my oldest son, big brother to 4 siblings and friend to many. Casey passed on February 7th , 2017.

He had the ability to see things in multiple dimensions. I always used his bleeding edge testing and exploration as a barometer of future technology / application directions. He learned through total immersion in building and designing application scenarios.

It started at the young age of 6 and never stopped. Vic Ahmed, founder and owner Innovation Pavilion, provided Casey and friends Joey Wainwright and Drew DeSilvey their own starter space to explore technology and application entrepreneurship at the age of 17. They saw both good and bad business ideas and start-ups. They learned the words opportunity, cashflow and trust.

His life was dedicated to understanding and pushing boundaries in all that he pursued. I remember asking the question Java versus Python. He just laughed. He loved Java, but Python was his game changer. Python made his programming fun and allowed him access to many unique modules / libraries to mold his applications.

He always had a Python Shell opened on his laptop or PC as he constantly moved between work and his pet projects.

He was willing to help any team member; however, his perfectionism drove him to push everyone around him to be organized, faster and detailed. This sometimes meant he would drive the team to exhaustion.

Coding came with rules, and Casey lived by the rules. He pushed standard techniques in syntax and commenting. Jim Heffner was Casey's mentor in code structure, error handling and testing. Once Casey learned what worked, he stayed on track with that process.

I saw the raw technical talent of a tech rock star. I watched that talent grow into a expert software developer and engineer. He became a leader with insight and purpose.

Casey was blessed to be surrounded and supported by a marvelous team of friends and coworkers. Casey loved the camaraderie of working with intelligent and slightly twisted group of software and technology professionals.

Casey's growth was directly impacted by his mentors. At Charter, Mike Manning saw Casey's raw talent and gave him his start. They were friends till the end. After Mike left, Robin Kargoll inherited Casey as his director. He always respected Robin and her leadership. Robin guided him through the corporate mine fields of expected results and behaviors.

Sagar Parikh became his manager, mentor and friend. Sagar and his team had a massive impact on Casey as a technologist and software developer. Sagar's team live to develop cable test software analytic and discovery tools. The team gave Casey both growth and creative opportunities during his three years at Charter.

Below is a note I found cleaning out Casey's desk.

Casey was representative of a new way of learning. Some call it hacking, he called it learning. He always built on his software development experience by layering experimentation with an expected delivery of a working application.

Casey's abilities also came with a desire to be alone to think, and the outdoors was primary his release. He told me dirt on his truck reminded him of where he needed to be.

Thanks goes to the Charter Advanced Engineering team for supporting him in life and his family in his passing. Thank you to Vic Ahmed and his longterm support. Mostly thank you to all that loved Casey. His friends and family. Forever missed and never forgotten.