As I stepped off my flight to New York, my pager beeped and I walked toward a bank of airport payphones—the kind lined in metal, with cords worn smooth by thousands of hands, and I made a call that lasted less than a minute. A tone. A pause.  Then—a voice. Not someone answering, but a recording. There it was—a voice captured, stored, and played back on demand. As I walked away from the phone, I knew something irreversible had happened: "Voicemail had arrived.”  Soon the world would learn they can tell someone something when their party is on the phone or away!!

In that moment, something profound had occurred. It wasn’t just a system anymore. It was communication—freed from time.  It needed a name, something simple, understandable, clear!  We chose the word “Voicemail” and secured a trademark, not to restrict it but because the industry needed a name and we had a chance to give it one, before someone locked it up.!  All of the voice messaging companies soon adopted the term  Voicemail and we were "Voicemail"!