> The most important thing he accomplished in 82
> years of life was inventing a cake pan.

Just because that's all the obituary talked about doesn't mean it's all he accomplished. There are more kinds of accomplishments, and more important kinds of accomplishments, than just business ones.

> That one man had 82 years on this earth and used
> them to invent a cake pan, or that another had
> only 19 years to live and one year to cherish
> his wife. Both obituaries showed a life
> completely wasted-one person had a life and
> pissed it away on a cake pan and one never
> really got a chance to live before he sacrificed
> it for his comrades.

He "pissed [his life] away" because he invented a helpful product that sold a million copies? The man lived to 82, which is an accomplishment in itself. He also, as you said, "married the girl he loved and they spent the rest of his life together." That's a pretty damn successful accomplishment if you ask me. If the obituary spends all its time talking about the cake pan, that doesn't mean that's the only good thing the man ever did. It just means the obituary writer decided to spend most of the obituary talking about a cake pan instead of the man's life.

-Eric Sleator