Stu

One of my colleagues, Stu, is retiring tomorrow (we've hoped against hope that it was all an April Fools' Day joke but, alas, he seems determined).  I don't know that I've ever stated where I work so I won't break tradition now by speaking of it too closely, but I believe I've made mention before that I work for the State of Minnesota. 

Stu has been a public servant at the agency where I currently hang my hat for longer than I've been alive.  As he browses my blog fairly often, I won't belabor that point.  Suffice it to say, I was terrified by that level of experience when our boss first delivered me to my little grey cube.  I was told that my neighbor could answer any question I might have and that I should pester him accordingly.  Stu and I went to lunch that first week, just the two of us, and he proceeded to ask me what I knew of economics.  My blank stare probably unnerved him.  Beyond a layperson understanding of preferred stocks and enough recall of Keynes from college to be dangerous, my grasp of Econ was about as graceful as a pig in heels. I'm a lawyer, does that evoke any form of confidence? I could write well, I knew my way around a statute, and I was curious.  I'm not sure I sold him on my worth at that point but we at least established that we could talk about books.  Lots of books.

I pestered him often that first year and routinely in the year and a half since.  "Stu, I have a question..."  "Stu, do you have a minute?"  "Stu, I don't understand..." "Stu, does this make sense?"  "Stu, can you explain..."
While he left teaching to join the agency staff decades ago, in every answer he was a Teacher.  Never patronizing, never unkind, always happy to brighten the darkness around any number of issues that popped up during the day.

But it isn't the professional counsel that I'll miss most (although I am tempted to call him at home for a few choice dockets).  I'll miss the 8 a.m. meeting of the Quiz Crew to fuss over Isaac Asimov's daily quiz, followed by a reading of the same set of cartoons (nobody can do Sally Forth or Dilbert or Doonesbury like Stu).  I'll miss slow wanders to the Lobby Shop for my coffee and Stu's 60 cent milk.  I'll miss Stu's chivalry, always opening the door.  I'll miss his voice over the wall reading any number of quotes from various Red and Blue-affiliated interests.  I'll miss being teased for my quasi-love of Ayn Rand (but I'm a Liberal, Stu, I promise, just a conflicted one).  I'll miss his asking me how my races went, how my training runs went, how I liked this or that play/book. I'll miss his "good morning," as we both made our way to desks shortly before 7 each day.

I think the best type of colleague is the one that makes everyone around them better at what they do.  Everyone who worked with Stu was a better economist/analyst/lawyer/regulator for having known him.

And the best sort of friend makes you recognize the better person you could be.  It isn't a matter of judgment, but of displaying, without fanfare or expectance of praise, what Goodness and Integrity look like in a walking, talking, breathing human being.  I am a better person because I met and worked with Stu, and I will miss him for it.