(Written by his father in Evergreen, Colorado on April 9, 1998)
Michael Glenn Welter, 24, of Sunnyvale, California, took his life sometime during the last part of March, 1998. His funeral will take place on Saturday, April 11, 1998 at Evergreen Memorial Park in Evergreen, Colorado.
Michael was born on June 26, 1973 in Omaha, Nebraska. In 1974, his family moved to Englewood, Colorado. In 1978, Michael's parents divorced, and Michael continued to live with his mother in Englewood. In 1986, Michael went to live with his father in Evergreen, Colorado. He attended West Jefferson Middle School and then Evergreen High School in Evergreen. Michael was a member of the football and wrestling teams. He graduated from high school in 1992.
We had introduced Michael to snow skiing when he was four years old. In his teen years, he became an avid skier with his good friend, Kevin Kowalchuk. Mike and Kevin would climb to the top of Loveland Pass and ski off the cornice, sometimes triggering an avalanche. When asked about that danger in this, Michael would reply that, if he died, he would die doing what he wanted to do.
Michael attended Metro State College in Denver and then Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. He graduated from CSU in December 1996 with a degree in mathematics.
After graduation, Michael pursued his career. He looked for a position where he could utilize his mathematical abilities. He didn't want to leave Colorado, but he realized that the good jobs were out of state.
Michael took a position in Sunnyvale, California with Lockheed Martin Space Mission Systems in June, 1997, and he was assigned to work on the GlobalStar Telecommunications project. GlobalStar is a system of 56 satellites which will be launched into low earth orbit. The purpose of the satellites is to provide mobile telephone services to the areas of the world without ground-based cellular telephones.
Until the first satellite launch, Michael seemed to enjoy his job. He successfully trained for the positions of operations engineer and scheduler as well as participated in pre-launch rehearsals and in-orbit simulations. This is a picture of Michael on the day of the launch:
The first four satellites were launched in February 14, 1998. During a telephone conversation shortly after the launch, Michael said he was required to work over 90 hours per week, and that his first day off wasn't scheduled until mid-April. He said he "hated this job and hated California." In the same conversation he said "Dad, I don't have a life". (A 90+ hour work week with no days off meant that he had to work 13-14 hours per day, seven days per week.) With more launches, he saw work demands only getting worse.
Michael also complained that they had to work rotating shifts. As I understand it, he had to work four consecutive days then and four consecutive nights, then back to days, etc. I do not know how much rest time was allowed when they rotated shifts.
Michael and I had previously discussed his getting a Master's degree in computer science at San Jose State. When I raised the subject again, he said it would be impossible to take any classes given the demands placed upon him by Lockheed/Martin.
I believe it was near the end of February that Michael said he was going to look for another job. We talked about jobs in computer programming and getting a job with Sun Microsystems here in Broomfield, Colorado. He said he regretted not taking a computer science degree because that was where the "good" jobs were. I suggested he try to stick it out with Lockheed/Martin while he gained some programming experience. I sent him some books on the Java programming language as well as the Symantec Visual Cafe' software. I don't know if he did anything with this.
From his office, Michael would often telnet to my Internet server and then "beep" me to "talk". We would "chat" for a few minutes, and then he would sign-off and go back to work. This activity, as well as his e-mail, tapered off in mid-March.
Ann (Michael's step-mother) and I were out of the country from February 26th through March 9th, and we had no contact with him during that time. On or before Thursday, March 5th, Michael purchased a Mossberg model 500 12 gauge shotgun. He took delivery on Sunday, March 15th (California has a 10 day waiting period.) He told his co-workers, but not his parents, that he had purchased the shotgun.
Michael spoke with Kevin Kowalchuk in early March. Michael complained that the satellites were not working and that the GlobalStar project was a failure. Michael said that upper management was blaming the failure on the lower echelon employees. Michael had previously told me that the satellites were launched before the on-board software was ready, and that there was a risk of losing the satellites. He said they couldn't "find" one of the satellites after the launch.
Michael had complained to me that he was falsely accused of driving a ground antenna over to the "stops" (past the limit of its movement.) Michael said that he spoke with his supervisor about the accusation, and that the supervisor said that everyone knew that the accuser was "an asshole" and that Michael was falsely accused. I don't think Michael was able to let go of that incident as readily as he should.
On Sunday, March 8th, Michael wrote a letter of resignation to Lockheed/Martin. The last sentences read: "My decision is final. Please respect my decision." One of Michael's supervisors tried to talk Michael into a programming job at Lockheed/Martin, and Michael refused. I believe that Michael was so bitter toward the company at that point that he would not have taken any position under any circumstance.
Thursday, March 19th, was Michael's last day at Lockheed/Martin. A going-away party was held, and it was said that Michael was embarrassed because of all the attention. He received a plaque which was signed by his co-workers. Some inscriptions are very ironic: one states "Keep you shotgun polished at all times"; another says "Enjoy life while you have one--we will miss you". Another says "Congratulations to the first one over the wall".
The next day Michael went to Human Resources to sign-out, and then he took a flight to Los Angeles to visit a long-time friend. She said they had been friends since she was a sophomore at Evergreen High School. She said Michael spoke of going to Mexico and "blowing all his money". She said she convinced him not to do that. She said that, when she delivered Michael back to LAX on Sunday the 22nd, she thought everything was ok with him.
I asked her if she knew whether Michael had recently broken-off a relationship. She replied that Michael was concerned that he did not have a girlfriend and that he did not have an opportunity to meet new friends.
After calling his friend in LA on Tuesday, March 24th, Michael called home. He said he was interviewing for new jobs, and he spoke of a position with Motorola in Phoenix. He said he would attend the Westech job fair on Thursday, March 26th. He asked what an "embedded systems engineer" was, and we then talked about micro-processors and micro-controllers that were embedded in consumer appliances.
Michael's last toll call was on Wednesday, March 25th at 9:37pm to his friend in LA. This call lasted for one minute (possibly reachng the answering machine).
We never heard from Michael again. Ann and I would ask each other if Michael had called--we couldn't call him because he would be angry if we woke him up. We finally called but got no answer. Another friend said Michael stopped answering his phone and disconnected his answering machine in mid-March.
Ben John was one of Michael's friends at CSU. Ben had moved to San Jose the year before Michael moved to Sunnyvale. Ben called me on Saturday, April 4th, to say that he had been trying to call Michael, that he had gone to his apartment, that Michael's car was in the lot, and that there was a note on the door from the landlord. I then called the Sunnyvale police to have them check the apartment.
Later, Ben said that, when they last spoke, Michael was anticipating the Westech job fair on the 26th and that he sounded "upbeat".
The coroner called later that night to notify us that Michael had taken his life and that he had been dead for over a week.
My wife and I went to California on Sunday, April 5th. We had intended to have Michael cremated and to bring his remains back to Colorado with us. We subsequently learned of a note Michael had left with instructions to be buried at the Evergreen Memorial Park.
We visited Michael's work site and the Human Resources office at Lockheed/Martin. His co-workers were shocked and saddened to learn of Michael's death. A company director admitted that Lockheed/Martin/Globalstar was working their employees at 96 hours per week and that they were now attempting to hire additional personnel so that shift rotation would take place after five days instead of after four. He said that they had conducted an employee survey and that the employees were uniformly against rotating shifts.
We had Steve Wilkinson of Service Master clean Michael's apartment, and he did a good job for us, under the circumstances. Steve said he found no indication of drug usage in the apartment although he did say there were several empty beer cans on the floor. Steve said Michael kept the apartment very neat.
Why did Michael kill himself? Why did he give two weeks notice at his job? And why did he pay his bills on March 19th if he knew he was going to shoot himself the next week? Except for the woman in Los Angeles, we haven't found one person who had any indication that Michael was troubled.
When Michael moved to California, he left his support system in Colorado. I believe none of this would have happened if he had had his friends and family around him.
I don't think Michael gave his family any indication that he was contemplating suicide, but we could have missed it if he had (I am carrying a lot of guilt about hurrying our last telephone call.) He never told us he had quit his job, never told us he had purchased the shotgun, and never told us he was going to "blow all his money" in Mexico. To us he was enthusiastic about finding a new job and moving on with his life.
Michael had sufficient money in his credit union to carry him through a period of unemployment.
I don't know if Michael's job situation was a causal factor in his suicide. I do know that he was deeply disappointed with the way things had turned out at Globalstar.
Michael's funeral will be held Saturday, April 11th, at 11:00am. The service will be conducted by Mike Carter, Michael's high school football coach. Mike, a PhD candidate in counseling, is receiving several calls a day from young people who want to know what happened with Michael and why. Mike says that Michael was always there for someone else, but that he had trouble opening up with his own problems.
We expect well over one hundred attendees at the funeral. Friends and family are flying in from all points to attend. I hope Michael realized how many people loved him.
There were over 200 at the funeral. His high school coaches as well as family gave eulogies. We had a reception at the house afterwards, and the house was full. It was very sad.
That night, I switched-on Michael's computer (which I had FedEx'd from California.) The first place I went was the Netscape history log. The last thing Michael did with his computer, on March 25th, was visit over a dozen suicide prevention web pages.
B. Michael Welter, father (mailto:mike@introspect.com)
R. Ann Jaramillo, step-mother and special friend
Nancy G. Hingston, mother
William E. Hingston, brother
Kimberly A. Hingston, sister, and Tyler Davidson, nephew
Brian C. Welter, brother
Michael J. and Julie Montoya, step-brother, Matthew Ward and James Montoya, nephews
Valerie Montoya, step-sister, preceded Michael in death
Arland B. and Beverly Welter, grandfather
Betty J. and Willis Evans, grandmother
Daniel L. and Susan Welter, uncle
Nancy L. Welter, aunt, Clifton and Katherine Welter, cousins
Betty, Don, and Ted McMichael, step-aunt
Evelyn and James King, step-aunt
Virginia Breeding, step-aunt
James C. Jaramillo, step-uncle
Eugene T., Colleen, and Kevin Williams, cousin
Hundreds of friends.