Sharon Thomas

Today I came to the sad realization that November 15th would have been Sharon Thomas' 16th anniversary at Bobst. Since March I have been sending anniversary cards to celebrate the hire date of all of our colleagues in Access Services. I don't get to send one to Sharon. If I did, I'd thank her for her years of service and commitment to doing an excellent job. I'd also thank her for her continual interest in learning, and specifically for her interest in the Service Excellence Initiative. Service Excellence was a lot of work, and there were times that thinking about Sharon's level of engagement in the program gave me the energy to keep moving forward.

At Sharon's funeral I learned that my understanding of Sharon was pretty much shared by everyone she met: she was a genuinely positive person who cared about other people. I certainly saw this in every encounter I had with Sharon and it made me happy to learn that this is simply how she was--in all aspects of her life. In her eulogy, Sharon's minister talked about how it's easy to be nice to people you like and a whole lot more challenging to be nice to people you dislike. Sharon was nice to everyone. Being nice to everyone doesn't always come naturally but since Sharon's funeral I certainly keep it mind more than I used to. I guess you could say that Sharon is still challenging me to be a better person.