My first exposure to the man who was "having more fun than a human being should be allowed to have" was in 1995. In these years we didn't have laptops with media apps and headphones, so listening to music or talk radio while at work wasn't an option for most people who worked in cubicle farms. But in that year, I moved to a new position, one in which I had an actual office with a door that closed. I had an old clock radio, and since the office was far too quiet most of the time, I tuned in most mornings to Denver's 850-KOA, the 50,000-watt blowtorch of Denver's talk radio market. Most mornings I would catch Mike Rosen, then the 800-pound gorilla of Denver talk radio, from nine to noon. My afternoons were generally taken up with staff meetings and work-floor inspections.

But once in a while I found myself in the office after lunch and started listening to this guy who was then broadcasting out of New York. That guy was Rush Limbaugh, and he was in his prime. I admired his pluck; Mike Rosen had guests on most of the time, and his show was stimulating - a few years later I ended up in studio with Mike for two hours myself, and it was a great time. But Rush, while he took some calls, carried most of the show himself, just a guy, telling us what he thought.

And he had thoughts on a lot of topics. You didn't have to agree with Rush to find him thought-provoking. He spoke freely on a wide range of topics, and he seemed to know at least a little bit about a lot of things. But more interesting was his delivery: snappy, quick, laced with humor, and generally polite, even to people who disagreed with him. 

Granted, his humor sometimes took on an edge. I also remember when he mocked the then-premiere of China, Hu Jintao, with an affected Chinese accent that prompted some comment. 

I found myself listening more to Rush as time went on. He was still broadcasting when I started my consulting business, and in those jacket-and-tie years I wasn't able to tune in as often; when you're on the clock at a considerable consulting rate, the client generally wants to make the most of your time, and a fair amount of my work was overseas. But thanks to the online presence of KOA, I was able to catch Rush's show recorded in the evenings, wherever I was. I remember distinctly when he announced the sudden onset of deafness, and how he dealt with that via cochlear implant, which was interesting to me as one of my clients at that time was a manufacturer of cochlear implants (although not the one Rush used.)

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Best of all, Rush made me think. Even when I disagreed with him, he made me question my assumptions. What's more, he demonstrated the value of humor, of being able to back up your arguments, of never failing to show some manners and respect to people you're dealing with, right up to the moment they prove they don't deserve it. He showed that you can disagree civilly and that you can use a cutting wit to good effect on those who don't rate that civility. Rush never backed down from a verbal scrap.

Rush, later in his life, also struggled with a prescription drug addiction, for which he was lambasted by leftists - the same people who would have lauded Rush's courage in admitting and overcoming his addiction, had he been on their side of the political spectrum. Rush may have been an imperfect man, but none of us are perfect, after all, and he was, imperfect or not, a great man, and an inspiration for millions. When you listened to Rush, you felt like you were having a conversation with an old friend.

He changed the face of talk radio almost single-handedly. He was the wellspring of a media revolution, one of the leaders of the new alternative media, and one of the first to break down the doors of the liberal media monopoly. For that, if nothing else, we should be grateful to him.

Rest in peace, Rush. The rest of us, however humbly, are carrying on your great work.