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A Fond Farewell to Prentiss Uchida, a Total Pearl of a Human Being
It was his time to go, but his presence very much remains
My heart is heavy and my eyes fill with tears as I write this remembrance of my good friend and mentor, Prentiss Uchida.
Two days ago Prentiss left this world after a six-month battle with a very aggressive cancer. Yes, Prentiss has moved on, but the deep impact he has had on me and so many other people continues to be very much present.
I first met Prentiss in 1983 when I began working with Tim Gallwey’s Inner Game Corporation. Prentiss was the President, the walking embodiment of business acumen. At that time, the closest I got to business acumen was my ability to spell the word, “business.”
Prentiss, God bless him, took me under his wing and, in a very kind way, helped me learn a lot about the world of business. In a way, he was a kind of Mr. Miyagi to me in the Karate Kid.
One of my earliest memories of Prentiss was the time the two of us went out for dinner at a very upscale Los Angeles restaurant. Back then, I was a vegetarian and had been for 11 years.
I ordered a tofu dish. Prentiss ordered the salmon.
