If you start reading this, I beg you, please read to the end. This is a story that has needed to be told for a long, long time. — In 1985 I was a year out of college and just starting to get comfortable in my first post-academic job. Life was, as they say, nice, boring, and routine. My best friend Gary was a maintenance guy in my company. A quiet fellow, Gary was the one guy you could…