This blog is for Jim Marventano's family and friends to review his status and updates while he goes through treatment for Stage IV Colon Cancer. We can beat it together!

Monday, October 15, 2007

Being a genius

I decided to write a blog about Jim, not about how I'm coping with the loss of Jim. Unfortunately there just wasn't enough time to post all the blogs that I wanted to about Jim before he passed away. He's an amazing person and I just need to write a few more posts about him.

So, that being said - what I'm going to talk about today is the fact that my husband was a sheer genius with corrugated cardboard. When Jim and I first met and he explained what he did for a living, my first response was..."so, you cut out boxes?". Let me tell you that a Packaging Engineer does a heck of a lot more than cut out boxes. Anything you buy - anything - comes in a package. And chances are, it was shipped to where ever you bought it. And if you bought it and whatever it is still works, isn't crushed, dinged or wet, then the packaging engineer did their job.

Over the years Jim has packaged everything from cleaners to poultry to snowblowers to toilets. He was hired into International Paper (IP) at just the right time. Jim was laid off from his previous company the week before we closed on our first house. But the timing was right and two brothers who ran the IP Geneva plant hired Jim. About a year or two after that Jim applied for a promotion to Charlotte, NC and got it.

We've moved three times with International Paper. Each time was a great move for us. IP makes moving painless. And of course, our last move was to Wisconsin, a location in which we both really wanted to be.

Jim's worked with a lot of people. Not just at IP - Jim also met with a lot of clients and worked with some of their designers, as well. I've never seen someone get so excited about boxes. Jim would come home with his eyes gleaming and say things like "I figured out a new, inexpensive toilet pack and it's awesome!" or "the crush test passed!". He has patents on a number of boxes, including a tomato box that you're seeing at the grocery store all the time, you just didn't know it was Jim's design. (Or, for that matter, you didn't notice that a lot of times you're picking tomatoes out of the boxes they were shipped in!)

Jim got to knowing how good he was. I think he always knew, of course he knew - he was Jim. But once he got to IP, they hooked him up with a mentor that really brought out Jim's talent. And after that, it was like a snowball. Jim got better and better. He got to train a slew of new kids fresh out of college. I'm certainly not immortalizing Jim - he could also get very annoyed. If Jim didn't think you were a good designer, I imagine he'd let you know it. There have been a few designers over the years that Jim really crabbed about. On occasion it was personality conflict, but more often than not it was the simple fact that Jim didn't think they were a good designer. He hated correcting work that wasn't any good. Jim was a measure twice, cut once kind of guy.

In the last five or six years or so, Jim got hooked into a group of a very few designers that are really good. And I think then Jim knew how good he was. These are the types of guys that make you want to come to work every day. They were his support network through annoyances, troubled times, or when he had to correct other peoples' work. Sometimes I could hear him call one of them when he was annoyed and by the time he got off the phone he was doubled over in laughter. Sometimes he'd laugh so hard at something one of them had said that he'd actually have tears in his eyes.

These are the kinds of guys (Jim included) that get an idea for a pack at 8:30 at night and call to talk about it with another designer. Not because they have to, but because they want to. I imagine they're all a lot like Jim: when their kids open a Christmas gift, dad spends about 10 minutes looking at the box. Case in point - the wonderful gift playhouse made completely of corrugated cardboard that Jim's mentor made for the kids. Check this out. And he somehow got the Jets logo in there. These guys are the pinnacle of creativity. These guys lifted Jim up. Finding a designer worthy of respect in Jim's mind was tough. And certainly it would be tough to crack the skin on this group because they know just how good they are. But it's not just that. They treat each other like brothers. No one is excluded from the merciless teasing or practical jokes. Even when Jim was sick they were still making him laugh and keeping him in the loop. They even called and talked to him about designs. I was so appreciative - I think he really needed that.

If ever a designer had the potential to break into the group, it was the other IP designer that was here in Kohler with Jim. Unfortunately Nick left IP about a month ago to move closer to home and take a better career opportunity. But every time Jim saw Nick, he felt better. Poor Nick really never knew Jim without cancer. Jim hired Nick in...June? And the following September Jim was diagnosed. It was Nick that originally drove Jim to the hospital. Nick also fielded the Kohler work while Jim was in treatment. After diagnosis when Jim went into work, I could see glimpses of the old Jim. He was normal after a day of working with Nick. Not depressed or someone with cancer. He was just Jim. And Jim thought Nick was a good designer. And for Jim to say that...keep cutting out boxes, Nick. You're really good.

In any case, over our lifetimes I'm sure we'll all work at a number of places and possibly span more than one career. Packaging was the only thing Jim ever wanted to do. And no wonder. He was so good at it. He had an amazing, funny, haughty group of guys that acted as his sounding boards, his friends, and his confidantes. Wouldn't you want to keep going into the office day after day if you had a group like that? Wouldn't it inspire you to do more? Design cooler stuff? It certainly did for Jim. He had great managers and coworkers. And he knew he'd found his niche at IP. I'd call it luck, but the fact of the matter is that he was Jim. He was just that good. He found his place and his cohorts because he truly cared about the job.

9 Comments:

Blogger Judester said...

This was a great tribute to Jim's genius in packaging.

Many a Christmas morning, I'd call to bitch at him about those damn packaging engineers and why it seemed to take HOURS to get a doll out of a box while an impatient toddler waited. He laughed and told me that if people like me wouldn't steal the merchandise, perhaps he could package it easier to get out! Piss-pot. I couldn't wait for him to have kids that I'd get to send packaged gifts to. Okay bud - you can design it, but can you open it?

After he got sick, I'd send him chemo week care packages. I think he enjoyed the package more than the gift inside. My idea of a mail-safe package is LOTS and LOTS of packing tape! He'd call and say "Geez Jude, why did you... If you'd just... it would've closed easier!"

Every time I struggle with packaging, I'm going to miss him something fierce.

Jude

2:12 PM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

It's easy to be good at what you are doing when you get to work with one of the best. I never met anyone that could think of a design as quick as Jim. Each one was unique as well. It didn't matter what the product was Jim could figure out how to get it in a package. He definitely was one of the most creative persons I have ever met.
Jim hired me the Feb. before his diagnosis. I feel very privileged to have had the chance to work with and get to know Jim. Even if the majority of the time I knew him was after being diagnosed. He definitely made going into work everyday enjoyable. I always looked forward to the weeks when he didn't have treatments because those were the weeks he would be in. Thank you very much for your kind words Kate. I couldn't even come close to understanding how all of this is for you. I just want you to know that you and your family are in my thoughts and prayers daily.

"Neek"

2:46 PM

 
Blogger Blog Antagonist said...

You know....I never really got what Jim did. He was so dismissive of his own merits yannow? I clearly remember asking him what he did. "I design boxes." Pause. "I know." Like...it was the most boring, mundane thing in the world.

I enjoyed hearing about it.

6:35 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The kids are really going to enjoy reading about what their daddy did one day. I love the playhouse and bet the guys had a blast designing it. How fun to have a dad, (dad's friends) with that talent.

7:24 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ah yes, the question that all of us packaging folk get...so, you do what now, put stuff in boxes? Jim and I laughed about that quite a bit down in the lab. He truly was a genius with corrugate - a decent amount of Kohler product would not be in one piece if it weren't for him. He would always get excited when I told him I had a challenge, and then he would come up with something that I never would have thought of. Absolutely amazing. I miss him every single time I walk into the lab.

9:38 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a wonderful tribute to Jim. Even as a toddler I realized what a gifted child I have. I bought him at 9 months old a Tupperware ball with various shapes where you find the right hole and place the shape in that hole. I gave Jimmy the ball with the shapes outside the ball and within minutes he had them all back in the ball. I could not believe my eyes (since I was not watching) so I did it again and sure enough he had all the shapes in the ball within minutes. Over the years Jimmy has always awed me with his genius, his wit, and wisdom. Not only did he have all this but was a very kind person to anyone who came into his life. Jimmy is truly a one in a trillion son.

Mom

10:21 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now that I know that Jim was behind some of the packaging designs, it will lessen my frustration when opening my children's toys for them. I just didn't realize there was a toy theft epidemic!!

10:22 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

It's so nice to hear how proud everyone is to have had Jim in their lives. How many parents can be as proud of their son as Jim's are?? How fortunate Kate is to have met Jim, scooped him up and, in doing so, broke the hearts of single girls all over the world who lost out on a real keeper! Rachel and Jake clearly scored HUGE in the gene pool and Kate has the honor of cultivating all of the strength, genius, intelligence, kindness, wisdom and wit they've most certainly inherited from both Mom AND Dad! Sister Judi possesses quite a chunk of those qualities as well - as those of us who don't know any of you have witnessed in this blog alone.

You are all GOOD people who may have lost the physical presence of someone so special, but it's soooooo beautiful to see you all soaking yourselves in all things Jim - the funny stories, his favorite things, the rich memories - the legacy he has left behind.

I know for sure, he's holding you all in the palm of his hand..........

11:24 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What a cool job...what a cool playhouse!! I will never look at those little twisty-tie plastic things that keep a toy locked into place, or a tomato or a toilet quite the same -- knowing corrugated cardboard genius Jim Marventano may have been behind it's packaging. I'm sure IP has a void that can never be filled.

Niki

8:49 PM

 

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