To Steph and Eric

Steph and Eric,
There's some great stories posted here about your Dad. I especially love the ones about the early years in Page. I didn't know your Dad back then and he would talk about that time often but I couldn’t really relate. I grew up in New York eons away from Page, Arizona. However, when your Dad and I worked together, you would have thought we had grown up together because we became very good friends in no time. I have some amazing stories of your Dad and me making business trips, traveling around the country for our job, Leapfrog.

I wanted to share one story in particular with you, not only because it was one of my favorites and a great learning experience but also because it highlighted what an incredible, irreplaceable talent your Dad was indeed. We were attending a large meeting in Chicago for a group called Catalyst. This meeting was attended by hundreds of people. Your Dad had a good relationship with the coordinator of the event, Bruce. On the second day of the meeting I was standing with your Dad as he was discussing the schedule for the day with Bruce. He pointed out that today was the presentations day where companies like Leapfrog were to stand up on the stage in front of all of the events attendees and make a speech...a 15 minute speech. Bruce asked your Dad and me what we had prepared. Your Dad, without missing a beat said that we were going to talk about the importance of electronic medical records. Now mind you...there was no speech. We hadn't prepared one! We had 1 hour to change that. No sooner did Bruce look the other way that your Dad grabbed me and we made an escape to the hotel room. In the next 45 minutes, we wrote a 15 minute speech. If you want to know how long a 15 minute speech is - try to speak for 1 minute straight about a single topic and multiply that by 15!!

Your Dad strutted up to that stage, one hour from speaking with Bruce and spoke with such confidence and poise. He didn't have much time to look over the script we wrote so he free flowed for a lot of it. The point he made was that life will throw curve balls your way and how you handle them is what defines your character. Your Dad had the character of Superman, impervious to challenges thrown at him. I sat in the audience in awe of him, wanting to achieve his level of talent one day.

Each of you has that gift. It was passed down by your Dad to you. Whenever you have doubt, you're afraid of making a misstep, I want you to think about that gift from your Dad. Fearless, resilience, perseverance. The both of you will accomplish great things in your life. I would never doubt a Cline.

Love Always,
Your friend forever,
Rich McBride