DAVID DePAOLO PASSES

David DePaolo passed away over the weekend.

This is a tremendous loss for the workers’ comp industry, both in California and nationally.

It’s really hard to believe.

David, president of Workcompcentral.com, spoke on a bloggers panel with me just 3 days ago at the closing plenary session at the Disneyland CCWC conference. On our panel, David’s wit and breadth of knowledge was on vivid display.

The night before our panel presentation we had an enjoyable chat while having a beer. David shared enthusiastic tales about his hobby of flying and also how proud he was of the excellent stable of journalists he had hired to cover the workers’ comp industry.

He was wearing his trademark sneakers , which looked like he just stepped out of Jackson Pollock’s art studio.

David had an infectious intellectual curiosity, great entrepreneurial ability, and integrity.

His company, Workcompcentral.com, has been a pioneer in daily coverage of critical workers’ comp issues.

But it was in his blog where his personality came through.

I can assure you that doing a blog about workers’ comp for years on end is not an easy thing.

David took blogging to another level, though. At DePaolo’s World he blogged pretty much every work day, yet managed to stay fresh and interesting.

He managed to occupy a sweet spot, understanding the needs of workers, employers, and insurers. He also had the vision to call out the poseurs and abusers who plague the industry. And he had a mind always scanning the horizon for trends that might result in an evolution of the workers’ comp systems across the country.

He was one of the people I’ve met in workers’ comp that I really respected and looked up to.

His untimely demise is a major bummer.

Julius Young