He will be sadly missed, but always remembered with a smile.
A Tribute to Laurie Storey
For those of you that don’t know me. My Name is Maqsood Shah. I have known and worked with Laurie for over three years. To me and my colleagues Laurie was more than a Manager, he was a friend and someone that we could approach about anything thing not just work related issues, and he would always give us the benefit of his knowledge and experience. Me and my colleagues would like to share a few of our happy thoughts and memories that we shared with Laurie.
You could set your watch by Laurie, he would always be the first person in, in the morning and he would always follow the same regime. He would park in the same parking spot everyday, come in empty the dishwasher, make himself a drink which never seemed to be up to his required standard, he would then wait patiently until the next member of the team got to work and would eagerly hand over his cup to get a decent cup of tea that he could drink!! At 8am he would then leave the building for a fag! On one morning he was so eager to get outside to have his fag he put Mo’s work coat on in error and wondered why he could not zip it up.
Laurie’s army training often showed through. On occasions he shouted commands at the team as if we were on the parade ground. On one occasion when myself and Laurie were presenting a training course I stood up just as Laurie had started to deliver his part of the training and asked if I could add some further comments. Laurie’s responded with “I am talking now so sit down.”
Laurie was disciplined in his healthy eating but he was always happy to attend a team pub lunch, were he would order fish and chips to the chorus of “We’ll tell Gill”.
As a manager Laurie had a wide variety of responsibilities which for our team involved stress counselling, relationship advice, and providing his team with weekend entertainment in the form of a Barbeque. Not only did Laurie authorise our annual leave he would also be able to give us in depth information on our chosen destinations. This would include a detailed analysis of their local cuisine, their political history and if you were lucky a guide book!!!
Laurie had a great sense of humour. He would frequently sit back in his chair with his arms folded and we were never quite sure whether he was about to request stats, advise on a new law or tell a joke – usually a joke!
IT skills were not his strongest point but Laurie was a great Manager, friend, confidant, and advisor.
He will be sadly missed, but always remembered with a smile.
