As many of you may have heard, we had a widespread power blackout last week — not just in San Diego, but all the way north into Orange County, south into Mexico, and east to Arizona. In La Jolla, the blackout started at about 3:40 on Thursday afternoon, and the power was not restored in our area until about 1 a.m. Friday. According to news reports, about 4.5 million people were affected.

With the earthquake and severe weather on the East Coast, and now this blackout here on the West Coast, we’ve all had an eventful summer. I for one hope that the rest of the year is somewhat less eventful.

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I was honored to be inducted into the Greater Washington Government Contractor Hall of Fame at a recent awards reception in Tysons Corner. The program is sponsored by the Fairfax County, Va., Chamber of Commerce, the Professional Services Council, and Washington Technology.

I regret that I was physically unable to make the trip to Washington to accept this award. I suspect that this is a beautiful time of the year to be in the area. My daughter, Mary Ann, will be accepting the award on my behalf on November 1st.

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Finally, I was recently mentioned in an article in Washington Technology magazine. The article is a good summary of some of the most-effective leaders within the government contracting world, with a focus on the good work of Jack London, chairman of CACI International.

Jack was one of the people I followed when I was at SAIC. He taught me a lot by example at a time when I needed it the most. I met Jack, along with many other Washington-area technology executives, through Mike Daniels.

– Bob