I like those heroes who say they aren’t heroes. You know who I’m talking about?

Neil Armstrong is a good example. With his passing, there’s been a renewed conversation about the first man on the Moon. I listened to pundits talk about that day in 1969. I also did some sleuthing on my own—truth is Mr. Armstrong didn’t see himself as a hero. He said he was only doing his part.

I can say the same about Renee Lyon, a voice engineer working toward her CCIE at Cisco Gold Partner Presidio.

When I caught up with her, she didn’t quite get why I wanted to talk with her. She said she was only doing her part.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not holding Renee up to space exploration or solving world hunger. What I can say is that when help was needed in a crisis, she didn’t hesitate. In my mind, that’s a true hero—famous or not.

What’d she do? She helped a whole lot of people who were trying to reach 911 emergency phone operators as a firestorm raced across the tiny Texas community of Bastrop County. Read More »

Tags: Bastrop County, CallManager, ciscochannels, Renee Lyon, SMARTnet