"He's a very detail-oriented, numbers person. He was a very loving family man," said Robert Boles, an architect who was working on remodeling project at Pugh's home. A woman who answered the door at Pugh's home on Saturday said she was too upset to talk.
Friends said Agrawal came to America from India with big dreams in the 1970's — and by most accounts he succeeded.
"We all had dreams of higher studies and coming to America," said Sanjay Mittal, who had known Agrawal since his days in college at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur.
Ambitious with an entrepreneurial spirt, Agrawal worked at Adobe, Intel and Bell Labs, and he started a handful of companies on his own — some more successful than others and in fields as varied as networking to semi-conducting.
At one point in the late 80's, he went to Bangalore to set up Intel there for the company. His latest venture appeared to be doing well, friends say. Specializing in chips for hybrid digital radio, the company was attracting the interests of venture capitalists and Agrawal seemed excited about its prospects.
"He was pretty happy, I remember him telling me the products were starting to work," said Mittal, who also owns a software company and was planning a trip to Brazil with Agrawal and his wife. "He worked very hard, we have to, you work late hours and travel a lot, whatever it takes to succeed."
Beyond his businesses interests, Agrawal had highly cultivated tastes. He collected art even traveling to Cuba, for a particular piece, and enjoyed good wine. "I remember I had to carry a piece of art for him from India," said Arya Bhattacherjee, whose known the Agrawal's for more than two decades. "
. But more than that, Agrawal's pride was his family. His wife, Asha, and two sons, Ankur and Ashish. Ankur's a freshman at Harvard and Ashish already had graduated from Harvard and is studying medicine at University of California San Francisco.
"He was a very honest, very gentle, a very straightforward individual, a real family man " said Steve Fields, a contractor who worked with Agrawal. In fact, Fields said, on Friday afternoon, the two exchanged emails, Fields told him he couldn't finish a particular job because a family matter had come up.
At 2:23 p.m., Agrawal emailed back: "It's okay, family comes first."
Aiman Kabakibo, who founded SiPort with Agrawal in 2004, had assumed the role of acting CEO, Lanza said. Kabakibo spoke only briefly when reached Saturday, explaining that he was busy tending the needs of the victims' families.
"I'm still trying to digest this," he said. "We're all close friends."
Bay Area News Group reporter Joshua Melvin contributed to this report.
已经有 3 人参与评论了, 我也来说几句吧
游客 [口.老.文.周]
2008-11-20 11:16
赞 
踩 
大家正在围观
