Carolyn Merritt- we'll miss you

This is the face of a Woman who made a Difference. An ENORMOUS Difference.

She is Carolyn Merritt, former Chief of the U.S. Chemical Safety Board. The CSB is the organization who comes in after significant chemical/process incidents (usually involving fatalities), investigates, determines the cause(s), and makes recommendations for action. A parallel organization in the US is the NTSB for airplane incidents.

During Carolyn's tenure as Chief, the worst disaster to hit modern industrial facilities happened when an explosion occurred at BP's Texas City Refinery, killing 15 contract workers in March of 2005. The investigation pursued by the CSB under Carolyn's direction brought attention to glaring failures in both industry and OSHA on process safety. Better yet, she demanded (and got) action. Major changes are underway in response to that investigation both by OSHA and industry. Carolyn pioneered the use of well-animated videos to re-enact the disasters from start to finish so workers, managers, and regulators throughout the world could better understand what happened. Those videos are amazing and hit home every time.

I had the privilege to meet with her twice in the past 5 years. While still Chief, she returned my emails consistently within 15 minutes (even though I didn't know her at the time). I wish I could say that about emails from people I know.

Carolyn elected not to seek another term on the Board. Though, even after leaving the Board, she kept up her mission to protect workers from process safety disasters. She was on 60 minutes as recently as June. She even volunteered to write me and my company a recommendation letter for a national safety award. She said she could only talk on Tuesdays. Later I found out why.

Carolyn was fighting Stage 4 breast cancer, and was receiving weekly blood transfusions. This was why she didn't seek another term. Tuesdays were her only good days, yet she was willing to spend part of 2 of those days talking to me and dictating a letter to her husband to send to me. Yet she didn't tell me any of that. She just wanted to do anything possible to push her cause and communicate good things that were happening.

On Saturday, I received word that she had lost her battle with metastatic breast cancer. On Sunday, I checked her Caring Bridge webpage, and she literally had remembrances sent from all over the world. It was amazing to see how many lives she had touched- from Bhopal, India, to Australia, to small Texas towns...

Thank you Carolyn for showing me that one person can make a huge, important difference. You will never be forgotten.