Emil Leon Matignon

On April 8th, Clear-Com mourned the loss of  a highly regarded audio engineer, musician, inventor, salesman, and friend - yesterday would have been his 61st birthday. In his 35 years with Clear-Com, he gained much respect from his customers and his colleagues. Here are just a few parting words from those of us at Clear-Com.

Emil Matignon – An Appreciation

By Bob Boster, Clear-Com President              

When I first came to Clear-Com in 2006 as a sales guy I was assigned to sit next to Emil for the first week to learn the products from a system design standpoint and get a feeling for how the business flow worked by listening in on his phone calls.  At that point Emil was doing a split of technical support, sales support, and order entry.  It was a great chance for me to learn the Clear-Com way.

As a former user I had already known a decent amount about how partyline worked overall, but there are some obscure elements that Emil was an excellent teacher on and I felt gratified when he said I was his fastest student to ever pick up on those things (IFB, two-radio interfacing, camera CCU’s). Over the years he would remind me of that and I still feel proud that he called that out.

Emil was a great example of our dedication to customer service and he embodied the Clear-Com focus on making sure we address our customers’ needs personally, with passion, and deep knowledge of how the product is used.  Emil’s example in this regard was not unique, but it certainly was a shining one – everyone who ever worked with him felt that and will carry that example with them into the future.

He was gregarious, inquisitive, sensitive, and full of energizing stories about his various adventures, both professional and otherwise. Over the years Emil was challenged to keep up with our innovations and one of his special qualities was he was as excited to learn something new from his colleagues as he was about teaching them something they might not know yet.  With an eye to the past, Emil was still working on making sure he could take care of business in the present and even looking into the future.

While I personally will miss the sound of his voice coming over the cubicle walls saying ’how’s it going, bud?’ I also know we have done an excellent job in allowing Emil’s example to impact our current support staff and we will strive to make sure our customers are just as passionately supported as they ever were.  Please join me in honoring the passing of a lion of the intercom world.

By Peter Giddings, Clear-Com Vice President of Global Events

Today I was saddened to hear of my dear friend -- in fact, everyone's friend, Emil Matignon's passing. It seems like only yesterday (in fact, some 30 years ago) when our new recruit, Emil, attended his very first NAB. How keen and excited he was to learn from me everything he could about Clear-Com. As the years rolled by, Emil became Clear-Com's "go-to" guy, particularly in so far as partyline was concerned. Came the day when Emil's heart condition became so challenging that he was relegated to the home office, but whilst his heart occasionally did, Emil himself never missed a beat. At our next NAB, we were literally inundated with Emil's global friends, demanding to meet, and thank him for his support.

I have never, before or since, experienced anything like it.

In all of the past decades, I cannot recollect a single day when Emil was less than his always ebullient self. As our friendship grew, we also had music (at an earlier time I played double bass) in common, it pained me that eventually Emil, having initially dabbled at drumming, subsequently performed on his electric bass. A bear hug from Emil upon returning from my business travels, many of these trips taking 5, or even 6, weeks in length, always heralded his desire to vicariously live through me my adventures .... experiences that clearly he would no longer be able to have himself.

I can now clearly see Emil in Eden.Healthy again, with that irresistible ear to ear grin, trading riffs with admiring Charlie Mingus, Yaco Pastorius, John Entwhistle, Ray Brown, and Jethro Tull .

Rest in peace my friend, leavened with some solid grooving.

By Ed Fitzgerald, Clear-Com Director of Customer Satisfaction

Emil was a loving member of our extended Clear-Com family. Customer service savvy, always ready with insightful answers, a smile in his voice and never too busy to help, Emil was the perfect example of how it's done. Never known to give up, he was the customer's best friend. Our family is richer for having known Emil and we will miss his infectious laughter and the gusto he brought to every conversation.