Commentary he added to one of my shift reports

In addition to being a genuinely kind and unflappable supervisor, Ron managed to brighten up our often-dull shifts at the LibTech desk with his humor. Example: this commentary he added to one of my shift reports.

“Speaking of Riley, I am concerned about him knowing the manager password. Possibly we should have Amy and Erika throw a paper bag over his head one day when he is walking to class and then have Kevin and Jesse grab him and carry him off to an undisclosed third world-like location–possibly the pottery area of the art department? It would be like a LibTech version of extraordinary rendition. Of course, we’d only detain him long enough for the rest of us to change the manager password—possibly to ‘ihatepizza’–then we’d release him since he’d no longer be a threat to LibTech security. And, of course, there would be no torture involved. Unless you consider being force to hang out in the pottery area of the art department to be torture? We’ll discuss this plan at our next manager meeting.”

I’ve kept several shift reports in my email archives for more than seven years because they’re so delightful to stumble across from time to time. Ron was incredibly patient with and respectful of his (often distracted) student workers, and he put a positive spin on all our tasks, down to the names we gave the printers. I’m sure Ron will be very missed by current and former students and staff alike.

Contributed by Amy Fitzgerald