A Message from California

As everyone has stated here, I too will always remember that great smile and what a fun-loving, caring and happy person John was.


My memory of John takes me back 13 years ago to the time when he came to California to visit his cousin, Kim who was my roommate at the time. John was so friendly and loveable and it was a pleasure getting to know him. John immediately bonded with my daughter, Giana, from the first time they met. He played with her, took her to the park, took her for ice cream. He was a “kid at heart.” Giana had fallen in love with him, as she did with Steve and Kim Zaccagnini. That loveable and caring personality definitely runs in the Zaccagnini family.

Our deepest sympathy goes out to the Zaccagnini family. In particular, Linda, as one mother to another, I have personal knowledge of how painful it is to lose a child, as I lost my son three years ago at the age of 27.

I cannot help but admire this Blog in Remembrance of John. What a wonderful, loving, positive gift it is to be receiving all these comments and memories of your son, John. You will always treasure these comments and photos forever and they will become your comfort in good days and bad days that may lie ahead.

My love to all the Zaccagnini’s!

Teresa LeFever & Giana Petrichella

John, the Man with Solutions

In my first customer meeting, I had the pleasure of John being with me. Immediately, I knew that John was special. His easy going demeanor, infectious smile, and wonderful laugh put everyone at ease. And then, when John spoke, he exuded credibility! What a powerful weapon! Our customers loved him (who couldn't). Yes, John was a rock star!

And, John never said no. His positive attitude made everyone believe that there had to be a way to accomplish a goal. Some things might have been more difficult or challenging but that only made them more interesting. John was a man of solutions, not excuses.

This past August, a number of us were blessed with a experience that I cherish. Tom Koppelman was holding a regional meeting at Lake Delevan, WI. When considering options of where to go for a team dinner, John immediately volunteered Heather's and his house. We had such a wonderful evening as John proudly showed us his horses, dogs, and cats along with being master chef at the grill. John was so happy in his home environment and we had the pleasure of seeing this side of the multifaceted John. I also had the sense that John actually had more fun that evening by having all of us over than anyone else (and we all had a great time)!

On the day of the tragic accident, John was scheduled to be on a call with me and several others at 4PM. When he had not dialed in by 4:05PM, we asked, "Where is John?" We could not understand him being late or even missing an event no matter how important or small. We all commented on how John honored all of his commitments and that his word was golden -- he never let anyone down. Now, we sadly know that at the time of the conference call he was in a better place likely cruising around with the top down.

I am so grateful to have known John for he has made me a better person. His outlook, appreciation of life, and approach to all he did should be a lesson to each of us.

To say that John will be missed is an understatement. In his short life, John made a true difference to this world. Just imagine what would have been.......

My sympathies go to the Zaccagnini and Cisco families who loved and were touched by John.

Lou Ebling

My Memories of John Zaccagnini

"I've got to blow dry my hair" is something that John would often say when we traveled together. The routine was simple: close down the hotel bar the night before and meet for breakfast in the morning before heading off to the work thing we're all here for. Whether that work thing is an internal meeting, conference, or training. "I've got to blow dry my hair" is what he would say the night before as when we planned the time to meet next morning. That was John's sense of humor.

We were a team at work and great friends outside of work. I drove fast cars, autocrossed, loved dogs and so did John. One of my fondest memories of John is when I was able to take the team out driving around the twisties in the Bay Area. While my boyfriend's 2000 911 wasn't John's prefered watercooled version, it was his first time driving that particular generation of 911 and he got it going sideways just as effortlessly.

At work he was my backup and I was his. We would chat weekly about the triumphs and annoyances we each encountered. He would always lend a ear when I needed someone to bounced an idea off of or vent to.

When I learned of John's death, I wanted a way to share and celebrate memories of my friend. Together with Kurt Eckert, we have now grown the blog beyond what I had initially envisioned. However, knowing John, he would want to accelerate this blog with a FineGround box he had laying around so that he can access it faster with his iPhone in the afterlife.

John was someone that I looked up to and measured myself against. He was a mentor, a big brother, a partner, and a confidant. While I'm saddened by what happened, I want to celebrate the memories that I have of him. When I see the picture of John from Consuelo's, I'm reminded of the great times and the side-splitting laughters we've had together.

-Catherine

John Z, Cisco Application Networking Rock Star

John was the senior Application Networking Architect in the Central US for our team and was the person we called upon to handle the BIG accounts and who closed some of the largest deals to date with our products in that territory. It should be noted that in doing that he also handled many of the most complex pre-sales engagements and designs that our team took on in the past several years. A typical conversation; “That deal sounds pretty complex, who do we have on it? Zaccagnini? OK, we’re all set, next item.”

Piece of cake. That’s how much confidence we had in John. No matter how tough a situation we knew that if he was on it we had our best chance to compete and win and he never let us down.

John was a “think out of the box” SE who showed great initiative in being proactive and getting things done; John was also a teacher, and what made John a guru in my eyes is that he used sales engagements to mentor SE's from our team and the field operation teams on a regular basis. That was second nature to John and I consider having that natural skill to be a hallmark of a great SE. Besides being a great teacher John was very much a team player who was a central figure to the sales teams in the Midwest and was always called upon to advise, train and participate in their meetings and in field engagements with our partners. John also established himself as a trusted advisor to the people who designed and built Cisco technology; the engineering and product development staff we work with who considered John a great sounding board as to how our products could be developed and sold.

John was tireless in his efforts and he built a tremendous reputation. At a recent meeting one of our Enterprise SE Managers couldn't stop telling me how great John is; ("if we could clone 10 of him we’d rule the world..."). I love that remark. I told John over the phone and I think he was embarrassed. Typical John, he never wanted to draw attention to himself but he always did because of how he carried himself and how he set out on his job each day. People couldn’t help but notice that talent.

To put it plainly, John was a Rock Star.

I truly considered John not just the consummate Systems Engineer but a friend and trusted confidant, and I know I speak for our team when I say we will miss him deeply.

Tom Sutliff

A Friend Remembers John

One of the earliest memories I have of John was the day he introduced me to the newest video game system available: the Sony Dreamcast. We played some shooter game that I was horrible at, but enjoyed learning anyway. I remember thinking to myself, “wow, this guy is cool! He has the greatest toys!” He never failed to live up to that image I created for him years ago, and I will always remember his enthusiasm for “toys” like this one. Some of the last moments I spent with John were riding home from the airport with him and playing on his new iPhone. He was eager to show me slide shows of his pets and his niece Sofia, and also to make fun of how awful I was at playing the game “lights out”.

John truly was one of the smartest people I have ever met, and he loved to share his knowledge with everyone. He always told me more about computers than I could ever understand. One of the best memories I have of John sharing his computer knowledge with me was when he taught me how to “ping” in order to figure out why my laptop would not get an Internet signal. It took a while for me to finally understand the function of octets and routers and to decipher the cryptic “computer geek” language he used to teach me about them, but the day I called him ecstatic that I had pinged all on my own and fixed my computer issue of the day using the information he had given me was priceless and will always occupy a happy place in my memory. Not only did he help me with technical problems when I was in town, but after I moved away to college he was always my go-to person when technology got the best of me. No matter where he was or how long it had been since we last talked, he would always answer my calls and help me with whatever I needed.

Another favorite memory I have of John was going for car rides. I used to beg him to take me out in the Porsche, even though speeding down the road and “testing the breaks” scared me half to death sometimes. I remember looking out his moon roof at the stars while we listened to Train (one of his favorite bands) and cruising the country roads at night. He showed me then that he was someone who you could trust enough to let yourself go in the moment knowing that nothing would go wrong as long as he was beside you.

John was especially fond of a show called “Sports Night” which he sat me down and made me watch on a couple of occasions. He also insisted that I take home the seasons on DVD and report back to him on how awesome they were. I’ll never forget his passion for that show and for everything else in life that he loved.

John and his wife Heather are family to me. They gave me my first job doing house and barn chores to earn money before my career as a Starbucks barista began (John’s favorite drink was a grande mocha), they opened their home to me on several occasions (once in particular to host a going away to college party for me), and they have spent many memorable moments with me (including the time John taught me how to pilot their farm tractor despite some hesitation due to my less than perfect driving skills). The world has lost a truly great person and so has our family. And although we are all very sad, my consolation is that I am fortunate enough to live from this moment on forever remembering the lessons that his life and his death have taught me. I am a different person because of John, and will never forget to “pay it forward” in his name.

Megan

19 Years of Friendship

John and I live next door to each other in Wiley Hall at Purdue University. Our friendship began with a simple question "Are you a Cubs fan?"

John and I shared plenty of interests and our friendship grew with late night euchre games, Alfono's Bread sticks, opening and
closing down Vino's, breakfast club, skippy burgers, spring break and Purdue basketball. John and I used to carpool back and forth to and from Purdue. Talking for hours, there was never lack of conversation. He was a funny guy and often had me in stitches with his ironies of life. He loved to quote Calvin and Hobbes comic strips and would enjoy pointing out people or organizations that where 'unclear on the concept'. John was the reason I passed CS 180. He thought I was 'unclear on the concept' of an elective course. He would say, 'Why would anyone take a computer science flunk out course as an elective?? Ken, I think you are unclear on the concept of an elective.'

A group of our friends all turned 21 years old at the same time, and John volunteered to be the designated driver. He showed us a great time in the city of Chicago and we all watched the sun come up the next morning. We felt safe because John was there. We knew we could let ourselves go and John would take care of us. Like our friend Steve said, 'If it wasn't for John, we may have woken up in a gutter.'

Along the way John and I stopped being friends and became family. He'd invite me over for dinner at his parents house and his Mom would cook for us. She is an incredible cook. After graduation from Purdue, we both stayed in the Chicago area. We'd enter dart tournaments together... I could never beat him at darts. Watch Purdue basketball together and dream of where we would be when the Cubs went to the World Series.

I was best man at John and Heather's wedding. I remember clearly the moment he saw her in her wedding dress. He looked at me and said, "She's so beautiful." John was a passionate guy. Everyone who knew him knows he wore his passion on his sleeve. Ask him a question about the his work, or the next great Porsche and John's eyes would light up, the cadence and pitch of his speech would increase and his hand would fly around his head wildly. Nowhere was this passion more apparent that when he spoke about his Family. When I'd ask him how Heather, Linda, John or Paula were doing, I'd hear hours of the latest and greatest.

John was solid all around great person, friend and brother. I will remember him always.

Ken Field Jr

Memories of a Used Load Balancer Salesman

I met John the first time I went to Campbell, CA for Fineground Networks five years ago. A bunch of us went to a local brewpub for dinner after a long day of meetings. As the night went on more and more people dropped off until it was Just John and I…and a waitress with a scowl on her face.

This set the tone for my friendship with John. He was a great guy and was just easy to get along with. We would work all day, go out and have a good time at night and usually shut the place down. We rarely drank a lot but the night just disappeared as we shared stories, ideas, work problems, home life whatever. John was a genuine person and you just enjoyed talking to him.


One trip out to California we decided to “go driving”. For John, Catherine and I that meant driving FAST (OK, well John and Catherine drove fast and I tried to keep up). Luckily Catherine and some friends had some fast cars specifically a Porsche 911, a Honda S2000 and a couple of BMW M3s. We set out from San Jose and headed to the coast through the mountains. Taking turns in different cars. I remember early on looking in my rear-view mirror and seeing John in the S2000 sliding sideways through a corner with his passenger screaming like a girl. John had the biggest grin you could imagine on his face. That day was a day you never forget.

When everyone else stayed near the meeting we stayed near the fun. It did not matter that we had a 45-minute drive each morning and evening, especially when John had used points to get a Shelby GT-H Mustang or a Nissan 350Z. Every group meeting was a chance to catch up, share stories, eat a good dinner and more often than not a good bottle of wine.

John, in addition to being a superb SE also had a large farm with many horses. One time he shared with me the details of breeding those horses. I guess I always thought that you put two horses together, played romantic music and hoped. In reality it involves heavy equipment and gloves that go up to your shoulder. I was nearly on the floor laughing as John described the process he went through.

At his job John was flat out the best. He could do things with technology that were frankly unnatural. He thought of ways to solve problems that others would never think about and he would get the sale more often than not. When I ran into trouble he was the first person I thought of and he rarely let me down.

On December 14, 2007 I once again reached out to John for help he said that he was running out to a meeting and that I could call him in his car. We joked about him staying safe and avoiding the telephone poles. That would be the last time I would talk to him. When I called a few minutes later he was already gone.

I will miss you John. I will miss your help. I will miss your easy smile, stories and jokes. I will miss your friendship.

Kurt

Your Favorite Memory of John

I know that each one of us probably have many memorable moments that we've spent with John. I'd like to ask you to share with us the _one_ favorite memory you have of him. You can either click on "comments" to leave your memory or email us at teamzacca@gmail.com and we'll get it posted.