 It takes me a while, sorry. We refer to Charles, or C.C. Reed as Charlie. And today, I'm very proud and honored that his son and his wife, his son, Charles, and his wife, Regina, and his son, CJ, are with us here today. Dr. Denton Cooley hired Charlie in 1971 to become our new chief of profusion technology here at Texas Heart Institute. He also hired Charlie to become the first profusion program director here at the Texas Heart Institute, and that was in December 1971. Our first class started in January of 72. The first class graduated in June of 72. That means we were a six-month training program. Shortly after that, Charlie published, or he authored, three textbooks, Cardio-Pulmini of Profusion, Cardio-Pulmini of Bypass, and Safety and Techniques in Profusion Technology. I'm sorry I may have gotten that text name wrong, but basically safety. He was a huge advocate of safety, and he demanded it of everybody around him. He, together, Dr. Cooley and Charlie wanted to develop the school so that we could have well-trained profusion technologists that would support the Texas Heart Institute, but also the rest of the world. And I think we've done a very good job on that, as I mentioned yesterday, and the number of countries that we're working in around the world, and also here in the United States. I think 49 of the 50 states, perhaps, and a few other countries. And so we've done pretty well in that regard. The, let's see, what else? Charlie was a unique individual. He accomplished a lot of things in a short amount of time that he was at work. He was one of the ones that first authored or started writing in regards to standards and guidelines for our profusion of schools and other places. He was also a past president of the AMSEC organization as the American Society of Exocoporial Technology. He also founded the American Board of Cardiovascular Profusion in starting the certification process. He was a huge advocate of certification. And the same thing for accreditation of profusion schools. And because he was the president of the American Board at that particular time and the conversion over to the accreditation committee in profusion education and CAHAL, we happened to have our school signed off as the first accredited school in that particular time period. And he was also a original founder and a member of the American Academy of Cardiovascular Refusion. And I think I may have a slide of that here in a moment. No, let's not go back here. I'll find it in a minute. He worked on those things to help improve our profusion society and make it a very strong society. And he did expect a lot from us. He expected the best in profusion technologists. He expected the best in profusion students. And he also expected the best in our vendors that provided us with supplies. Hence the reason he basically forced them into cleaning up their oxygenators, reducing particulate matters in the oxygenators, reducing the percentage of water and blood leaks from whatever amount that the companies wanted to do back in those days to zero. That was his expectations. If you did not meet Charlie's expectations, you would know it. And it was typically by the tone of his voice that a few of us encountered. Charlie had many hobbies. I gave him a fish tank one year and no big deal, a small fish tank. And the next time I saw him about a month later at his house, an entire bedroom was full of fish tanks, saltwater, fresh water and et cetera. He had a room with Betamax. I think that's what it was called. Betamax and VCRs that were programmed to take these things like John Wayne movies and et cetera. And again, an entire bedroom. He was a photographer. He converted one of these bedrooms to a dark room so he could do his own pictures, that developed his own pictures. He was an avid hunter. When we'd go goose hunting or duck hunting, he would make the bag his limit in a short period of time. It might take me half a day or an all day to maybe get one duck or one goose. The other interesting thing about Charlie, he was always creating things like many profusals do. He had to save hundreds of white plastic grapes that came off the outside of our custom tubing packs. I asked him what for? And he said, for goose decoys. And they turned out to be great goose decoys because we can just, they're lightweight. They were small. We put them on the rice bowl and put them out there and pick them up and they were plastic. So there's no big deal that they got with. And so that was quite a unique individual there. We didn't have to put out the real decoys and they worked wonderful. He was a collector of paintings, carvings and a wide variety of items. He's very eclectic. And he also collected orchids. I went down to Panama with him one year. We spent about a week down there. Got lost in the jungles for a couple of hours, hacked our ways out of the jungles. And so we survived. And then right after that, we went over to Madrugha's house. She was one of our graduates from Texas Art Institute only to find out she wasn't there. But that didn't stop Charlie. We went on a shopping spree, just like he always does whenever he goes anywhere. He goes on a shopping spree to buy something from that country or from that region. Another trip was in Paris. And by the way, no matter where we went, we were always talking about profusion technology just like we do when we go to wherever. If we see one another on the street, if we see somebody else's home and things, we seem to talk about profusion technology all the time. Drives my wife crazy sometimes. But anyway, that's what we do. Anyway, this particular juncture in my life, we were in Paris and that's Cali Hill. Cali was a profusionist from Canada. And across from them was Charlie's wife and also Aaron Hill. And they were there for a meeting. But after the meeting was over with, Charlie went shopping again for paintings and for art and for China and a wide variety of things. Crystal, he just, he had it all. Okay, so what do I do to make it move forward? Oh, there we go. There we go. He said it right there. Also, while in China, the company I was working with at that particular time, we were over there having equipment and supplies and donated a lot of things for China. But China, we were also over there in Shanghai in Beijing. And during that time period, we did a considerable number of adult patients and a few pediatric patients while we were over there. And of course, educational exchanges, giving them books and et cetera. So Charlie was instrumental in doing a lot of those things. But again, when the day was done, he was shopping for whatever he'd shop for. Jade, China, whatever. I never saw a lot of those things that he bought because I knew he bought a lot of things when he went out like this. And so there was always an educational opportunity and there was always a shopping spree to follow. As I mentioned earlier, Charlie was a member and past president of the American Academy of Cardiovascular Profusion. But some of our other people that are here today and that have passed or whatever, were also members of the American Academy also that was Diane Clark there and Chris Clay and Jane Smith and let's see who else I can see. Bill King, Richard Berryessa, myself. There was a handful of us that were members of that particular time and kind of grew over the years. Then as far as the profusion team goes, that particular year, I think I was about the only one. Oh, Bill King's there. So the two of us are here today over there near the far right there and the rest of them are spread out all over the country. Another group of profusions there. Chris and I are there on the far right. Chris is here today. Oh, I wanted to go back from that one. Craig Loseck is over there on the far left at the top and Craig was presenting yesterday. I think that was a really enjoyable. I really liked that lecture. That's us and Chris Clay's here today and she's down there. Let's see if anybody else is here. No, thanks. And then Charlie retired and I believe it was 1985, as I recall. He moved to Pickles Gap, Arkansas. He bought some land, built a house, got a farm, ranch there, had some animals, selling tomatoes on the side of the road and those kinds of things. And he had a great display for all of these items he had collected all over the world. He had big shop, still places for his VCRs and tapes and things like that that he could watch. And he passed away at a very young age of 54 years old in 14 years, he basically accomplished more than all of us together could accomplish in this room. And basically built the foundation of which we can work upon here and now in the future. And so I was very proud of having that opportunity to work with him and being part of Texas Heart Institute. And yeah, would you like to come up? I'm just really privileged and humbled to be a part of this, I think. Like I said earlier, Charlie was my program director when I went through profusion school. And he was hard on us, he definitely was but he's a very complex, multifaceted man. He loved poetry, he wrote poetry. He was always kind to me and I was always made me kind of nervous. I was like, am I getting ready to get fired? That was a sign. But you knew he pushed you to your limits and because the patients deserve that. Patients deserve for us to be the best that we can be every single time. And then as teachers, our students deserve that. And I'll learn that from Charlie and Terry and Raymond. And so I just thank you for letting me be a part of this moment, thanks. Charles, could you come up here for a moment? One of the things that was done for Charlie was a bronze bust made of Charlie. And I wanted to make sure that it got to the appropriate person. And Charles and I had dinner last night. We talked about a lot of history. Terry and Deb, thank you so much. I met my dad very late in life, I was 16. I actually had come up to the Tech Star Institute probably in like 1983, 1984. And he truly took me back into the operating room and a couple of things I remember back then. Charlie pointed out Dr. Cooley's world's voice which is like this metallic pink color. I thought that's pretty cool. In the operating room, he said, yeah, treat yourself, you make sure you stand over here. And I was amazed, I mean, they had pulled out all the intestines of this person and they were working back towards the spine and replacing some vessels. And what I remember was I was amazed that when someone was like sort of leaning on the organs of the patient, sterile towels were on top of it. And when they put everything back it just like all fell back into place. It started when I was 16 years old. I thought, that's amazing. Everything just goes back into the body and stuff. And it really wasn't until after Charles had passed away that we learned how much he had done for the profession and how committed he was to profession. But so I knew him for five and a half years. And but when he passed, I thought that was sort of it. So I really thought my knowledge of Charlie was gonna end with my interaction with him for those brief years. But years later, I came across the Academy website and actually saw the, or read the Memorial Lectures. And they were very insightful. Erin Hill had written one. Another gentleman out of Georgia had written one. And I thought, it really gave some insight and things that I didn't really know about Charlie. But what I do remember is one of the times I'd gone up to his house. I was amazed at his capacity. Here he was working on a novel, an aviation novel he was writing. He had five TVs on and he's talking about Zulu Wars in Africa. And he's smoking his cigarettes and drinking nice tea. And I was amazed he could just do, he could just take all this in about what great capacity. And if I could only have a fraction of his capacity for what he had done. So, you can read those things online. And once again, it sort of fills that void of things you didn't know about him. But the difference now is that having someone speak the words, right? I can read the words about him, but having you all share your stories with me, it's been incredible. And something I won't ever forget. Thank you so much.