Timm O-kuh-buh

(photo of the Water Garden in the Oregon Garden
by Timm O'Cobhthaigh)

This from co-worker Ted Piper:

***

I worked with Timm since November of 2006. Timm passed a day and half after I left Oregon for Washington DC. I am still deeply saddened by his passing and hopefully this rendition of his day-to-day in the office and his demeanor will serve its purpose to family and friends.

Teacher. I worked closely with Timm, assisting him with his Social Security casework. I remember the first day and I was assigned this duty. Timm immediately produced a 3 ring binder with a full description of how to conduct casework from opening a case to closing the case complete with tricks of the trade and contact information of federal liaisons from all the various offices around the state. Admittedly, I'm a slow learner and ask many questions - Timm took this in stride and over the course of the next few weeks would drop what he was doing to help me with any question I had. I often wondered what his inner dialogue was when I would ask a question that we both knew he had explained to me already.

Inspiring. The more I got to know Timm, I was inspired by his words and his perspective. He would often tell me that the job he did was not flattering, glamorous or any of the above but that for him, it was essential to know that he was using his experiences and knowledge of a complex system to help those less fortunate and in some cases, save lives. I found this approach to be helpful to me as I worked assisting him, attempting to free up some more of his time to help more people.

Mentor. I often approached Timm to ask his advice with difficult decisions, situations, or stories in my own life. It didn't matter if he was busy or had to leave work, he always stopped to listen and give me a straight shooting answer. Regardless if I took his advice or not, he would always follow up either in the evening on the phone or the next day at work. He was one of the first to support my decision to go to Washington DC and follow my dream. I remember him saying clearly: "I know you will do great, I'm always a phone call away if you need me."

My friend. Timm and I met up a few times for post work happy hours to converse about his photography, outdoors and hiking and of course -- politics. Timm would explain his political aspirations to me of running for city counsel, school board, and eventually state representative. He asked my advice on what I thought he should do, where to start and who he should be taking to. Timm had a passion to serve - knowing that it would be a tremendous amount of work for little or no pay. He selflessly replied, "just so long as I can help people." That's just who Timm was.

Fond memories of Timm include being a part of his photo shoot at the Oregon Garden in Silverton. This experience really showcased Timm's passion for photography -- and his ability to communicate and direct people for the vision he had of how the shot should be. Timm and I would have half serious political conversations and I can still hear the eruptions of laughter we would share when we would begin the conversations with "When I'm in charge..." (insert policy idea here).

I think by far, Timm would get the most phone calls in the office. I would chuckle to myself when constituents would call and ask to speak with "Timm O-koo-buhh, Timm O-something, how do you say that?" Depending on how the day was going and for my entertainment, I would encourage the constituent to "sound it out".

Timm's passing was a bombshell to us all and I struggle in the midst of many tears to find a reason why. Only reason that makes sense is that the good Lord needed a teacher, someone who could inspire, mentor and a good friend up in heaven to help out. Rest in peace friend; I will say to you the last phrase you said to me -- "Take care of yourself, guy."