Trickster Lights Up the After Burners One Last Time – Chases Over the Horizon
Geoff Stilley, serial (and curiously, sometimes parallel) federal sales leader at many of the leading tech brands in our community, passed in Jupiter Fla., on Saturday, Aug. 23. He was 76 – and he was my friend. A unique individual, Geoff left an indelible mark on federal IT over an illustrious sales and marketing career that spanned four decades.
I met Geoff at Digital Equipment in the mid-90s – and worked with him at a succession of companies from CyberMedia, Network Associates, Informatica – too many to recall. A hard-driving exec, with a fierce temper, drive, and Marx-Brother’s sense of humor, Geoff ran big organizations and his leadership helped to launch many of the most successful sales and marketing careers in our market today.
While his commitment to the truth could, at times, be exaggerated, I’ll stick with the facts as I know them. Geoff was a Naval aviator who served his country in Vietnam – he told me his call sign was Trickster. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Geoff graduated from Penn State, a proud Phi Delta Theta, before answering the call to serve his country as a Navy airman.
Following his service, Geoff flew through business school at the University of Maryland, securing a master’s degree in public policy, before catapulting into business to power the PC, cyber, and internet tech revolution. Geoff piloted some of the most successful federal tech bids – from VA PEACHES, and on. In the late 90s and early 00s, every SI, VAR, and competing tech player, knew Geoff by both sight, sound, and reputation. Anybody that worked for Geoff, and there are too many to compass here, remembers him – I’d venture more so than any other boss.
His personal life mirrored his professional. No polygamist, Geoff did have four wives – and narrowly escaped a fifth. A fearless adrenaline junky, Geoff enjoyed fast cars, planes, and adventures. I will never forget riding shotgun in a race car with Geoff – it may account for my grey hair.
A gifted storyteller, Geoff’s skills proved as useful in the board room – regaling and entertaining customers and partners – as they did in the saloon. Geoff loved people and was as happy talking to down and outs in Ireland – who he christened the “idiot and the shitter” – as with politicians in the Capitol.
An enigma, who defied definition, Geoff is perhaps most faithfully captured in anecdotes – things we experienced together in the year 2000, while he ran Network Associates public sector.
I was walking with Josh Wolfe, Kent Rounds, and Phil Higgs down a pier in San Francisco on a beautiful Saturday afternoon. “Hey, Moron,” Geoff called from behind us. We all turned around.
In an interview with Government Computer News, the reporter asked Geoff how his cyber competitors were performing in a consolidating market. “Well, they don’t know whether to shit or go blind!” Sometimes the best PR is the words the papers don’t print …
John Inkley, concerned that Geoff looked skinny, changed the breakfast order on Geoff’s hotel room door – providing our hero with a 6:00 a.m. wake-up with a 20-course breakfast. Geoff didn’t get indigestion, he just chuckled.
At my wedding, Geoff spied my wife’s aunt, a nun from Boston, sitting quietly alone. He moved right in, and had Kay shaking her can with him on the dance floor in seconds.
Geoff is survived by four ex-wives; his son, Geoffrey; his brothers John and Bob; his two grandchildren; and his nieces and nephews. More broadly, Trickster is survived by anybody that met him – a man that could conjure a sandstorm of reality. He will, no doubt, be ventriloquized and embroidered for decades to come. God speed Stillini – save a high stool for this moron – between the idiot and the shitter – and next to you at the bar.
This article was written by MeriTalk Founder Steve O’Keeffe.