A Life Cut Too Short – In Memory of Saif Pathan

There are many things I have written about over the past several years since I began writing a blog about BioSurfaces.  I started this journey to give you a sneak peek into what it takes to run a small company, often sharing personal insights about around the struggles we face each and every day.  Even with many challenges, one area that Tina and I have been truly blessed with over the past 23 years is to have met, worked with and broken bread with many great people who have been part of our team.  Many of our team members have stayed or stayed with the business for many years.  I hear and have read numerous times that anyone that works for a company or even the company itself should never say that it feels like a family.  It is only a business. 

While it is true that BioSurfaces is a business, it is more than just 4 walls and technology.  We have been honored to see individuals grow in their knowledge base (whether as interns or full-time team members), challenging themselves by working outside their comfort zone, getting married, growing their families and even suffering their own personal tragedies and losses.  Some of our team members move on due to their lives changing.  This is part of the business.  We have always felt fortunate and proud to have been able to watch them grow and flourish.  The time we spent together at BioSurfaces provides us with a common thread: working closely together to achieve a common goal.  This required us to spend a lot of time together each week, probably even as much as they spend with their family and friends. 

Last Thursday, we received news that one of our former team members, Saif Pathan, passed away unexpectedly.  Nothing prepares you for receiving that news.  As I write these words, I still cannot fathom he is gone.  I cannot relay to you how heartbroken we are.  There have been a lot of tears shed over the past several days, along with a few laughs thinking about some of our stories.  Tina and I feel that we have lost a family member.  When you lose someone so young, it is hard to comprehend.  I think it is important for us to tell you about him and what he meant to us. 

Saif was part of our BioSurfaces family for 12 years prior to leaving to join DuPuy for an opportunity he could not pass up.  When he left, Saif, Tina and I shared some tears on his last day, but we all knew this was a great opportunity for him.  After he left, we stayed in loose contact with him after he left as life gets in the way.  We would send him the occasional check-in text or would go out to dinner every so often.  We had just reached out to him in March by text to tell him about the news that we welcomed our first granddaughter Miller to the family.  Saif had known our kids since they were young so he was excited for us and we were looking forward to catching up over dinner soon.  A dinner that now will not happen.

It is important for us that you get to know how we met and who he was as a person.  In 2005, Dr. Phil Brown at Clemson University reached out to me and said he had this great young man named Saif who was smart, energetic and had a passion for electrospinning.  He was looking for his first job post-graduation.  I told Phil that I would be interested in meeting with him to see if he would be a fit for us.  After all, it was only me in the lab so we needed to begin building a team.  I also needed to be able to work with this person as I would be working closely with him.  As soon as Tina and I met Saif, we knew right away we had the right person. 

Saif grew up in India, leaving his family to further his education in the US.  I still remember Saif showing us the photo of his entire family (a huge contingency) and close friends taking him to the airport to send him off.  Like many immigrants, it is daunting to leave what you know to come to a completely unknown country.  Not a problem for Saif.  He immersed himself in our culture, traditions and activities.   He assimilated so well into US culture that I joked that he was more American than I was.  In some ways, it was more a true statement than a joke.  I was impressed by his knowledge on so many topics, from religion and world politics to pop culture.  He wasn’t a know-it-all, but quietly made his thoughts known in a respectful way. 

Saif would join us for some holidays when friends were not around, playing video games with our kids.  He became an extended part of the family.  As the kids grew up, he even brought a friend with him to take in a high school game for Tarryn and Cameron.  When he met up with his friends for the holidays, the stories that he would bring back to tell us had us cracking up.  We learned about things such as fowl de cochon, turducken or roman coliseum (will let you look those up if you don’t know what they are).  He loved his family.  He would see his brother and his family as well as his sister whenever he could.  He would speak lovingly about his mom and dad.  Any sniffle that he had when he was speaking with them would set his mom to tell him to make sure he was eating honey.  I joked that he should put honey jars in his background to put her at ease.  He went back home to take care of his dad when he became ill, helping out his family even though he was still working during US hours of operation at DePuy.  This is just how he was.  

Many of his friends know that Saif had an old Toyota Corolla that he kept being bringing back to life.  It was being held together by tape at some points.  I say this as I drive old vehicles to give you a frame of reference.   A few years back, we met for dinner and noticed he finally got a newer car.  I commented on it.  He looked at me, smiled and said, “I didn’t realize that so many of my friends thought I was driving a Sh$tbox and didn’t say anything.”  I told him we didn’t have the heart since he loved the car so much.  This is how Saif viewed life. He was dedicated to things and people he loved and just brought joy to everyone who had the pleasure of meeting him.

At work, we focused on developing new medical devices using our electrospinning process.  Saif was extremely smart and motivated, constantly reading scientific literature and wanting to learn more.  What made Saif who he was is that he was kind and humble, having no ego and having a great sense of humor.  There was one time that we were travelling to the University of Rhode Island to do some testing and what appeared to be 80-year-old person passed me on the highway.  I looked at Saif and said should I be insulted that I just got passed by her.  Said turns to me with a huge smile and said “yup!”  We could not stop laughing.  He worked hard to move BioSurfaces forward and did not hesitate to take on any task, even writing a presubmission to the FDA when we had never done one.

Tina and I are so grateful that 2 of Saif’s friends reached out to tell us of his passing, one of which I had never met.  He meant so much and will be missed.  We hope Saif knows that he made a difference in the world, even though his time was cut way too short.  He made a difference in our lives.  You and your family, who we know, are grieving more than we can image, will always be in our thoughts and prayers.  As I relayed to one of Saif’s friends, while I am not familiar with the Muslim faith that Saif practiced, I know that Allah has welcomed him into paradise as he was such a great representative of what we all strive to be here on this earth: a good, humble servant.

-Matt