A calendar year’s worth of change, and now Jeff…

Following a several-year lucky stretch of consistency in the Admissions staff, the past 12 months have been marked by change, as staff members have gone off to new locations or new positions at Tufts.  And today I’m writing some words of farewell for one more member of the team, Jeff Carbone, whom many applicants may have met on the road or corresponded with throughout the past few years.

When Jeff joined us in July 2009, we knew right away that he was the perfect addition to the office.  He’s one of those people who does his best work when he has the maximum possible amount on his plate.  As a beneficiary of this behavior, I always knew that I could pass off to him a little task that was more than I could handle.  Or, no matter how busy he was, I could convince him to join me in the Hall of Flags to take photos while I wrote the blog.  But I was hardly the only one to benefit.  An Information Session that needed covering?  Jeff would do it.  An extra bit of travel?  His suitcase was packed.

Jeff is unendingly genial, and he formed friendships with each of the different office personalities, bringing us all closer as a consequence.  He honed in on the best way to communicate with each of us and had a special way of creating consensus when we we couldn’t quite decide how to proceed with something.

And most important, he is always happy to participate in a conversation about food.  He enthused about great new recipes and restaurants, often calling his favorites “phenomenal.”  He failed to convince Kristen or me to eat Tofu Scrambler (despite my love of tofu), but not for lack of trying.  “Phenomenal,” he said.  A rare area of disagreement — more often than not, if Jeff was enthusiastic, we were sold.

When I told my family that Jeff was leaving Fletcher, each of them had the same “OH NO!” reaction.  That’s how much I’ve enjoyed working with Jeff — enough that the people who know me best knew right away how disappointed I’d be.

Naturally, I wish Jeff and the fortunate people at MIT’s Sloan School all the best.  And we’ve already exchanged texts about bargain pastries and martinis we each encountered this past weekend.  But, while we’ll still have the opportunity to discuss food or meet for lunch, it’s around the office that I’ll really miss him — he’s simply a super colleague.  I know I speak for all of us as we wish Jeff well, just a little sadly.