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• A Salute to Cynthia Lumpee: Part 3

  Bob and Cathy Smith with Cynthia during the early days at PAR. Congratulations on your retirement, Cynthia! You may not know Cynthia Lumpee by name, but if you have ever ordered from PAR, you have felt her influence. Cynthia is PAR’s Vice President of Customer Service, and she has shaped the entire Customer experience with her focus on providing the very best service in the test publishing industry. After a 32-year career with the company, she is retiring this Friday. Throughout the week, various members of PAR’s staff will share stories, memories, and well wishes as we send Cynthia on to her next chapter. Cynthia taught me the “PAR way,” which is about doing things the right way—being friendly, reliable, and thorough.  She made sure that we always remember that Customer Service is our most important product. Keeping that goal in focus is vital to PAR’s success, and it’s what separates us from our competitors. Most importantly, she taught me that little details matter and the only perception that matters is the Customer’s perception.  Thanks for everything! -Daniel McFadden, Manager of Customer Support   I knew ...

• A Salute to Cynthia Lumpee: Part 1

  You may not know Cynthia Lumpee by name, but if you have ever ordered from PAR, you have felt her influence. Cynthia is PAR’s Vice President of Customer Service, and she has shaped the entire Customer experience with her focus on providing the very best service in the test publishing industry. After a 32-year career with the company, she is retiring this Friday. Throughout the week, various members of PAR’s staff will share stories, memories, and well wishes as we send Cynthia on to her next chapter. Many things have changed at PAR, but Cynthia has been a constant for 32 years. Cynthia was the fifth person to join PAR, and she has had an extraordinary 32-year career here. She joined PAR as a part-time office clerk in 1983. At that time, she described herself as a married tennis mom who was raising two young daughters. She became PAR's first Customer Service representative, then our Customer Service Manager, and finally Vice President of Customer Service. Along the way, she set the Customer Service standard for our entire industry and taught all ...

• A Salute to Cynthia Lumpee: The Final Installment

  You may not know Cynthia Lumpee by name, but if you have ever ordered from PAR, you have felt her influence. Cynthia is PAR’s Vice President of Customer Service, and she has shaped the entire Customer experience with her focus on providing the very best service in the test publishing industry. After a 32-year career with the company, today is her last day before retirement. Throughout the week, we have shared stories, memories, and well wishes. Today, we share two final well wishes here. Vicki King and Cynthia Lumpee during this year's United Way kickoff event. What an honor it is to propose a toast to Cynthia! I'm sure you have all heard many stories about her along the way. And it's stories like these and countless others that epitomize the wonderful nature and contribution that Cynthia has made to PAR. We are indeed fortunate to have had the privilege of sharing Cynthia's expertise, work ethic, and commitment.  She has achieved countless goals and accolades -- too many to mention now. Cynthia has left a remarkable legacy behind and one which will remain with us ...

• A Salute to Richard Brummer: Part 2

  This week, Richard Brummer, Senior Manager of Quality Assurance will be retiring after 12.5 years with PAR. This is the second part in a series where PAR staff share their memories and well wishes on Richard’s retirement. Did you miss Part 1? Click here. For months, every time I walked into Richard’s office, my eyes were drawn to something strange, and I couldn’t fathom why he had it. Perched beside his monitor is a section of a tree trunk about a foot and a half in length and about six inches in diameter. Glued to this piece of wood is an assortment of brightly-colored plastic bugs. For a long time, I just thought that he really liked the outdoors and it was his alternative to a painting of a tree. I asked about it after a while, and Richard explained that one of his many responsibilities is to find errors and inconsistencies in our digital products during development. Any issue he and the team finds is logged in a central place that is used to communicate with the programmers. Issues are ...

• A Salute to Richard Brummer: Part 3

  This week, Richard Brummer, Senior Manager of Quality Assurance will be retiring after 12.5 years with PAR. This is the third part in a series where PAR staff share their memories and well wishes on Richard’s retirement. Did you miss Part 1 or Part 2? Catch up now. We will miss you, Richard! The first time I ever met Richard was when I was doing post-hire interviews my first week at PAR. I remember walking into his office and seeing a display case with an electronic tether. I was a little intimidated. I came to find out that he was the project manager of the team that created the electronic tether. I think this may have intimidated me a little bit more, but as I got to know Richard both inside and outside of work, his wisdom, integrity, sense of humor, and caring made him stand out as both an employee and a human being. He quickly became one of my favorite people and I am sad to say that life at PAR will truly not be the same without him! -Rebecca Gerhardstein, ...

• A Salute to Richard Brummer: Part 1

  “Real artists ship” is a quote attributed to Steve Jobs of Apple, but around the PAR office, it is a phrase closely associated with Richard Brummer, Senior Manager of Quality Assurance. This week, Richard will be retiring after 12.5 years with the company. When Richard started at PAR in 2004, he thought he would be working on developing psychological assessment products in print. But in the years since, that has only been a small part of his responsibilities. Most notably, he has been a dedicated champion of the PARiConnect platform since the early days of development. Every PAR Customer has felt Richard’s influence—his tireless dedication to making sure each product is error-free, easily understandable, and intuitively designed is clear on everything he touches. Richard has taught all of us so much about creativity, innovation, and – just like his motto – making sure the focus is always on the Customer receiving a product that makes their job easier. Here are a few memories we would like to share:   I believe that it was, in large part, Richard’s motivation to speak directly to ...