I first met Rowland in 1972 via our employment with S.W. Bell Tel. when I was transferred to Cushing, Oklahoma. The surrounding telephone communities were called upon to help the Stillwater Exchange during the O.S.U. school rushes and I was privileged to work with him in almost all school rushes from that time until 1983. In all my dealings with Rowland, I found him to be hard working, dedicated, and knowledgeable in the telephony field. We spent many occasions over the years working on problems in the older #5 X-bar office where he served as a Switchman. I found him to always be calm in times of equipment outages and dedicated to finding and fixing the problems. I respected his technical abilities, but more than that, I respected him as a very fine person. He had an aura about him that commanded respect. My condolences go out to his family...I know he will be sorely missed.