Diana Stroyan

Diana Stroyan, having been a school teacher, got a job at Hewlett-Packard, and eventually became the manager of the Technical Marketing and Learning Products departments for the computer graphics area. One of Diana's trademarks was that she was a heavy user of "yellow stickies," also known as Post-It Notes; most of her assignments were given in this manner. Another trademark was that she virtually always drinking a diet pop.

She met Dave Larson, her husband-to-be, at SIGGRAPH '87, an annual computer graphics trade show. Once they were married, they got two enormous white Alaskan huskies as pets. On the job, Diana was very personable, friendly, and efficient, and she really cared about her people--and as a result, her nickname (used by everyone in the department) was "Mom." A lesser nickname, brought about by her name, and the fact that Princess Diana was hot news back then, was "Lady Di."

By the way, "Rattler" and "Kauai" were codenames of two projects we were working on in 1991.

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You can talk of teaching school,
And recite the Golden Rule,
And of raising big, white dogs, like four feet high.
But when it comes to changing
Things in life, and rearranging,
Then you cannot find the like of Lady Di.
See, she taught at school awhile,
Then at length, the happy smile
Dissipated as her restless feelings grew.
Teaching kids had been fulfilling,
Though, for something really thrilling
She would need to seek out something fresh and new.
For it's Di! Di! Di!
She wrote her resignation with a sigh,
Then she's out! She's finally free
To apply here at HP,
Ah, we never will forget you, Lady Di.

Well, of course, she did get hired,
And quite a lot transpired,
Such as SIGGRAPH '87, I must relate.
One display drew her attention,
More than all at that convention:
Good ol' Dave, who'd be, eventually, her mate.
Then she took a new position,
And she bettered her condition
When Support and Learning Products were her charge.
With the helm now firm in hand,
She distributes each command
With yellow stickies (which she orders by the barge).
For it's Di! Di! Di!
With her ever-present diet pop nearby--
Through its Nutri-Sweetened bubbles,
She just burps away her troubles
As she launches into Rattler and Kauai.

Through Diana's skillful leading,
And supplying what we're needing,
Though she little knew of I/O slots and ROM,
She would gain our fond affection,
As is clear in retrospection:
Though a boss, we all referred to her as "Mom."
Then there came that fateful day--
A week, last Tuesday, by the way--
Her feet, she stated, had begun to itch.
She'd unfold her wings and fly,
She was telling us "good-bye,"
'Twill be hard for her, we hope, to make the switch.
For it's Di! Di! Di!
We little knew that dusk was drawing nigh.
Again, her restless heart was aching
For a change she would be making;
Ah, we never will forget you, Lady Di.

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