I’m very sad to report that my executive assistant, Claire Plowgian, is moving with her husband to Wisconsin where he will start his career as a new doctor. This is a very exciting opportunity for them and the beginning of a whole new adventure. We wish both of them all the best.
All of us are going to miss Claire immensely because – not only has she been here since before we even began the Flashpoint adventure – she has been - without a doubt - the most consistent, reliable and brightest source of good humor, stability and equanimity in the entire college. She had a smile and a kind word for everyone every day, rain or shine, in the midst of the countless emergencies, surprise visits, schedule changes, and the astonishing number of balls we have had to juggle week-in and week-out for the last 3 years. Flashpoint has a lot of talented people (we wouldn’t have succeeded otherwise), but no one ever called any of us easy and Claire was very often the calm eye of the storm right at the center of many complicated situations.
In addition, she fearlessly jumped in whenever necessary to lend her very substantial and diverse talents wherever needed from playing the violin with Michelle Shocked, to recording other music with her own band and others, to using her language skills to translate and interpret for us, to making sure for years that we always had our monthly birthday cakes, etc. No job was beneath her; every task was important and done as well and as quickly as possible; and she was – without doubt – the best and sweetest team player in the place.
Claire dealt with people from around the world, people from high offices and from the streets, people of all ages and lunatics (some of our nearest and dearest friends), and she treated every one of them kindly, respectfully and professionally. I only wish that each and every one of our students could leave here with an attitude and a work ethic that was even a fraction of what Claire brought to her work and her working environment every day. We will miss her a great deal, but we will miss the example she set and the way she conducted herself every day even more.
I’m reminded of an old admonition:
“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”
As we all move forward, and as we start new chapters in our lives and our school, I think it’s very important to be as grateful for the time that Claire spent with us as we are sad to see her go. We will certainly miss her.
