Dealing with Disaster – Engineering Firm Lost Senior Managers Twice in a Year

When A.D. Williams Engineering founder Allen Williams died in the pilot’s seat of his company plane last October, with his chief financial officer at his side, it was a tragedy for the family and the company.

When his son Reagan succeeded him as president only to die while piloting another plane on company business – with two recently appointed senior managers in the plane with him – the company was reeling.

Many companies recover from the sudden loss of senior officials, but rarely does the loss happen in such a dramatic, almost fateful fashion.

In retrospect, the cover of the company newsletter, dubbed “Memorial Edition”, with a picture of Reagan and Allen Williams beside a plane, is spooky in its unintended foreshadowing of the son’s death.

Quickly appointing a new president (news release PDF) and reassuring everyone that the company would carry on, A.D. Williams was nonetheless rocked to its core by the multiple deaths.

An extended period of mourning is natural when a family-run business loses its namesake. In this case, the company paid at least as much attention to the deaths of other senior executives. That’s as it should be.