See the full text of my announcement here. Please post any comments on that thread, rather than on this one.
Thanks,
Chris
To all,
Please join the conversation here:
Chirs-at-Bose announces retirement
Please follow the link. This discussion is now closed.
Congratulations Chris.
I’m happy for you, and delighted that we’ll be hearing from you here going forward.
ST
Congrats Chris,
All the best in enjoying life while your still in shape to do it. I really appreciated your contributions to the Bose community and the great discussions with Ken at the Lil Switzerland L1 conference. We have all made some wonderful friends and connections, thanks to Bose and the great products we perform with. As one of the early Bose users here in The Villages, Fl, it is interesting to see how many other entertainers here have switched over to using Bose gear.
Between my L1 Model II and the L1 Compact, they continue to address my needs, covering hundreds of performances without a problem. I truly thank you, Ken, Cliff, ST and all the support people associated with this technology that has made such a profound impact on our lives and musical careers. I have recently purchased an RV and visiting the countryside with my wife, 2 small dogs and a Bose L1 Compact is an excellent way to catch up on missed leisure time.
I am sure we will all be looking forward to your continued contributions to this forum.
Joel
Chris, you two are so wise, and lucky to have made this decision, and are able to carry it out. Julie & I are so happy for you…and I’m a little envious. Okay, a lot envious. Have a great time, all the time. Hope to see you in your travels.
P.S.
I have not been on the forums in quite a while, and am so glad I happened to log in just now, and got to see your announcement.
Hi Chris,
The first thought that comes to my mind is, "What book will he choose to read on his first of what I hope is many traveling vacations?"
I know there are many more trails, waterfalls, and mountain tops in your future, enjoy them all.
O…
Hi Chris,
we haven’t met or “spoken” to each other on the forum, but I have learned a lot from reading your articles here. I’m grateful for the help and advice you’ve given us over the years. Your posts haven’t reached astronomical levels in numerical terms (131 to date), but each of your pictures has painted a thousand words (to quote David Gates).
I’d like to wish you a very happy and fulfilling retirement. Many people retire and don’t know what to do with their time. You’re retiring because you don’t have the time to do what you’d like to do while you’re still able. That’s good.
It’s unfortunate that the L1 “legends” are slowly disappearing, but that’s a part of life. I’ll be looking forward to reading your posts in the future. Maybe you could start something like a “Chris’s Corner” for subjects pertaining to your expertise.
I’ve been in early retirement since January 2013, and officially retired since May 1st this year, so I do know what it’s like to have the time to do the things that you couldn’t before.
quote:Maybe that means my username will have to change to “The-engineer-formerly-known-as-Chris-at-Bose”. Smile Or something shorter.
I think it would be nice if you kept your avatar picture. When I see that, I don’t need to read who’s actually posting.
Enjoy your retirement Chris.
Take care,
Tony
Congratulations, Chris!
I will never forget your talk about the B1 bass frequencies when you were at the St. Louis get-together a few years ago. The use of the ropes was an innovative idea and very visual. I SAW what you were describing about bass reflection waves in a room and the lightbulb just went off in my head! I so thank you for that 10 or 15 minutes of “learning” and the whole experience talking with you at the conference. It made all the difference in the world to me in using our LI/MII systems over these years at different and challenging venues.
Best wishes in retirement and should our paths cross again, I would certainly enjoy catching up on things with you. Until then…Happy trails to you…until we meet again!
Take care…John
Thanks to everyone for the kind wishes.
@Joel: I’m really glad to hear that the L1 family of products continues to provide you with solid value. That means it’s not a passing fad and it’s reliable enough to keep serving you for many years. That is just what we hoped.
@Pete & @O…: Believe me, your addresses are on my bucket list. Bridget and I want to do a ~4 week driving tour of the US, maybe next year, and we plan to swing by.
@O…: Currently on my bedside table are: “A First Course in String Theory”, “Understanding Emotions” (graduate psychology textbook), “Sail Power”, and “The Meaning of Evolution”. Maybe now I’ll have time to finish them!
@Seagullman: well met, Tony! I think I’ll be around the forum and I plan to keep my same username.
More in next post …
More breaking news!
1) I have just been promoted to “Bose Fellow”, the highest technical honor that Bose bestows. There have only been seven Fellows in the history of the company. I am humbled beyond words to know that my leaders value my contributions so highly. It might seem pointless to grant me this position now, but Bose has a history of “doing the right thing anyway”. And read on.
2) The company and I have agreed that I will continue as an employee at a very low level of attendance. I plan to be in the R&D building on three consecutive days every four weeks, during which I will be consulting on strategic technical challenges that the company faces. The hope we share is that this will allow me to protect my free time and “retirement state of mind”, yet still enable the company to benefit from my talents where they might have the most impact. And of course, I look forward to the monthly heady stimulus that anyone gets from a visit to Bose Corporation.
3) Tomorrow (Friday, June 10) is my “last day”. My office is bare, I have a few TODO’s to check off, and the weather outlook is fair and beautiful for as far out as they currently forecast. On Saturday, I’ll be going on a morning bike ride with some friends from Bose.
Still here, still Chris-at-Bose
Congratulations! That’s great.
It’ll be one heck of a retirement gig.
Enjoy retirement, you’ve earned it.
Congratulations Chris,
I’m sure that there are none more deserving than you for this honour and the special consideration that you are getting in so many ways.
ST
Hi Chris,
Congratulations from me, too, on your promotion to “Bose Fellow.”
quote:There have only been seven Fellows in the history of the company. I am humbled beyond words to know that my leaders value my contributions so highly.
And many of us are extremely grateful for at least some of them.
It’s also good to hear that you “will continue as an employee at a very low level of attendance”. I’m sure that we will benefit in some way from your continued input at Bose (here on the forum, too).
quote:And of course, I look forward to the monthly heady stimulus that anyone gets from a visit to Bose Corporation.
Something that most of us don’t get a chance to do (the round trip for me would be massive, but I somehow feel that to be able to play guitar and sing in the auditorium there may make up for the journey).
Enjoy your last day (Friday, June 10) as a full-time employee at Bose.
Tomorrow, Saturday, June 11, starting with
quote:a morning bike ride with some friends from Bose.
is the beginning of the rest of your life. I wish you everything that you wish yourself, plus maybe one or two things that you may feel that you don’t dare to wish for.
Enjoy the time that you’re now going to have.
Take care. and very warm greetings from a retired Englishman in Germany,
Tony
quote:Originally posted by Chris-at-Bose:
@O..: Currently on my bedside table are: "A First Course in String Theory", "Understanding Emotions" (graduate psychology textbook), "Sail Power", and "The Meaning of Evolution". Maybe now I'll have time to finish them!
Hi Chris,
I took, and passed, " A First Course In String Theory", three evenings a week watching reruns of Sheldon on Big Bang Theory. I thought it was amazingly funny.
I think the other books are over my head, but maybe you can tell me about them on a (easy) trail someday.Even though our time together has been extremely limited, to me, your passion for your chosen field of work has always shown through. It is not surprising to me that the "Heads" of Bose, who know and understand your talents, would not want to let you go. You may now be entering the mythical, "best of both worlds".
Enjoy.
O..
Congrats Chris, on your retirement and high honor bestowed. People like you and Ken at Bose changed my musical life!
Good luck,
It’s been three and a half years since I “almost retired” and I was about to write a long update in an email reply to Oldghm when I thought, “wait a minute, why don’t I post that on the forum where you all can read it?” So, here it is. Maybe it’s off topic, but I beg your indulgence: this IS about my gig and many of you are treasured friends. And in words per year, it’s small.
I’m still working at Bose three consecutive days each month. December’s gig starts tomorrow. I meet with about a dozen people one-on-one each time. They tell me I’m earning my pay, so we keep doing it. Among other things, I’m working with Ken-at-Bose on the future of consumer electronics and with some folks in Pro on new acoustics prediction software.
Cliff-at-Bose and I are about to have our weekly “gentlemen’s lunch” at his house, which happens every Monday unless one of us is traveling. If you’re ever in our neighborhood, come to lunch.
Bridget and I now have enough time to keep fit outdoors and we do travel a lot. Summers are mostly spent at our cabin in Maine; in winters, we rent a place in Sanibel, Florida for three weeks. We also try to really “get away” at least once a year—in September we spent a week hiking inn-to-inn with a group in the mountains of Slovakia. Still hoping for a US tour where we could stop and visit many of you.
Current books on my bedside table are: four books on Bayesian statistics, “50 Masterpieces of Chinese Paintings” and that darn “A First Course in String Theory” is still here. As you see, I’m diving deeply into statistics, a subject that matters a lot to Bose because we’re doing things like hearing aids and Sleep buds. Good human testing relies on impeccable statistics, but you’d be dismayed (but perhaps not surprised) to know that about 2/3 of results published in the relevant journals fail the test of repetition. The poster child for this so-called “replication crisis” is nutrition/health, where most of us do not heed new reported links between foods and diseases, because those claims are so often retracted or even reversed. Bose health-related products must do better than that or we’ll rightly lose your trust. Fortunately, I’ve found some books that make the subject fascinating to me. And they explain the replication crisis and its potential remedy.
Bridget and I don’t get enough music in our diet, that’s for sure. (Come rescue us?) As you know, it’s hard to find live music that’s not too loud or spectrally awful. We subscribe to a classical music series in Boston, where we hear about ten concerts a year. Next up, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields in Symphony Hall. Yumm. And we always attend the LearnQuest Indian Classical Music Conference, which is on March 27-29 this year (shameless plug).
Yeah, this is living the dream. (Now if only we could resume those Musicians’ Conferences—we’d be there in a heartbeat.) Missing your company and your music and hoping all is well with you and those you love.
Chris
Best of luck to you Chris! I have been retired for a few years now and don't actively gig so much although I still travel around with a Compact in hopes of the occasional plug and play gig in South Florida.