After a three week fight with an unexplained and unexplainable infection, our close friend and partner, David Palecek, passed away on Tuesday of this week. David leaves behind his wife Melissa, four beautiful daughters, his brothers, his parents, and an extended circle of friends, clients, and colleagues who are still coming to grips with a world without the blessings of David's presence. His wry wit, crooked smile, heartfelt emotions, and sheer intellect, combined with a deep caring for the people with whom he filled his world, made him a truly special person . I fully expected to be writing the announcement of David's election to director in 3 months, instead of his obituary today. And yet, here we are. So David, this is the note I didn't have the opportunity to write... In many ways David Palecek was the consummate generalist, serving clients ranging from drug retailers to milk co-ops to landscapers to airline maintenance departments. But, it was in the world of semiconductors where David truly made his mark. In the words of Stefan Heck, "he was the guy that in the early days of the semiconductor practice helped break open Japan. They used to exclaim, 'David-san said so; it must be right.'" More recently, he led our global semiconductor practice as a subsector of the Tech and Telecom practice, and was instrumental in our service to many, many clients. David's approach to client service was grounded in his absolute conviction that we could help companies make more money for their shareholders and employees than they would ever do on their own. He paired this unwavering zeal for finding the money with an equally fanatic emphasis on asking 'why?' until he got to the bedrock issues. Clients and his teams knew David would do whatever it took to make sure they got all the value McKinsey could deliver. At the same time, he did it his way. As Bob Sternfels notes, "David always called it as he saw it. And he would call it right. It didn't matter if the audience was a conference of CEOs or the West Coast director group." Many of us knew David as a cost hawk at McKinsey, always searching for another opportunity to reduce waste in clients' processes and our own. Operating as the CFO for the West Coast, David took pride in finding more effective models for improving every aspect of how we operated as an office. This mindset carried well over into his personal life. Derek Dean reminds us that, "though David received endless ribbing about the fact that he bought Melissa's diamond engagement ring at Costco, the one thing he regretted about that decision was that somewhere in the Costco value chain, someone had probably still made some margin that he hadn't completely negotiated away." I commented earlier on David's sense of humor. Without revealing too many stories, I will simply note that David was the first, and hopefully the last, partner ever to bring a live chicken into our San Francisco Office as part of a scavenger hunt he had organized for new recruits that were deciding whether to join our Firm. Not surprisingly, they virtually all did, and many still discuss the 'chicken incident'. Outside of work David lived a full life -- as an amateur pilot, an accredited volunteer ski patroller on the weekends in Lake Tahoe, an expert heli-skier, and most importantly, a committed husband, father, son, and brother. Words cannot do justice to David's attachment to his family and their devotion to him. I remember once watching David, his father, his brother Misha, and two of David's daughters all going back and forth in fluent Czech and feeling like a mute witness to something very special. David, you have left a hole in our partnership and in our lives that will be impossible to fill. As Melissa said to me one evening at the hospital, "McKinsey is David's family." And, of course, David is our family. David, thank you for having been a part of our world, even if it was for far too brief a time. Melissa, our collective prayers are with you, Katrina, Caroline, Sierra and Annika. We share in your loss and the memory of David. With deep sorrow, Gary