Marilynne Rudick and I formed E-WRITE in 1996. She retired in 2011, and she passed away this February. I loved her with all my heart. Our partnership is the source of every good thing that has happened in my career over the last 30 years.

We started E-WRITE because we knew that people struggle to write well at work. In 1996, we were sure they’d find new forms like email and web content challenging, and we were right. I came to our consultancy after a decade as a high school and college English teacher. Marilynne came to E-WRITE after a successful freelance writing career.

As a writer, Marilynne contained multitudes

Before we started our company, she’d written for Time-Life Books, the Federal Communications Commission, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, and Advertising Age. She’d published two Harlequin Romance novels: Glory Days and Fixing to Stay. During our E-WRITE years, she wrote software documentation for the National Cancer Institute, web content for the National Air and Space Musuem, online training materials for the Pan American Health Organization, and marketing emails for Geico. Together, we authored Clear, Correct, Concise Email: A Writing Workbook for Customer Service Agents.

The perfect mindset for a business partner

How lucky I was! Marilynne was a super-smart, creative, hard-working person. But it was her “we can do this” mindset that moved us from having a lunchtime conversation about how people needed writing training to forming an LLC, creating a website (see header for ewriteonline dot com, Marilynne, and me circa 1998), finding clients, and earning a good living. She never said anything corny like “All big, aspirational tasks can be broken into accomplish-able parts,” but she behaved like that was true. She was wonderful at moving from concept to plan, and her positivity made all things possible for us as a team.

Marilynne faced her multiple sclerosis diagnosis with courage, physical stamina, and humor

Read “In Crete, Mobility With a Guide and a Glide,” her 2004 New York Times article about her kayak trip to Greece. It includes her anecdote about how the tour guide piggyback-carried her up a mountain, so she could join a sunset hike. And just a few months before her death, while she was in hospice, she wrote a letter to the editor of The Washington Post: “Humans deserve dignity in death.” She was clear-eyed and emphatic about how she wanted her final days to unfold.

Marilynne retired from E-WRITE in 2011, so it’s been a good long time since we worked together. But her partnership and her example fill me with love and power to this day. I’m so lucky to have had her in my life, and I’m so sad she’s gone.

In honor of Marilynne, please share a comment about a colleague who’s helped you do better work.