A Giant Is Gone

A leader in the field of knowledge management, a master of personal learning, a voracious reader of just about anything and everything, Larry Prusak has left this world.

I’ll always remember Larry as someone who told stories, but his genius was that he knew how to select just the right story and tell it in a most entertaining way so that the lesson came through solidly but without any fluff around it. It was a pleasure to listen to him.

I also loved his writing style. He could bring complex concepts to such clarity. Having worked in knowledge management from before it was called that, I devoured his book, Working Knowledge, when it was published 25 years ago. Even today, after so many more books have been written on the subject, it still offers clarity.

But my keenest memories of Larry are the times when I was telling him about something I had read. Time and time again, he would say, “Oh yes, I remember that.” And, of course, we would then discuss it. Only one time – one time – did he say that he had not read it. I was thrilled. Finally, I had read something that Larry had not. The book? Too Much to Know by Ann M. Blair. (No relation.) There is no doubt in my mind that he did go and read it. Larry was like that.

Always ready to learn more, he also shared what he knew as you can see in this interview I did of him and Ed Hoffman.

You miss a friend like that, and I do.