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Augustana Grad Obit in the WSJ. (NOT DAVID SNOWBALL)

OT but this fine person went to David Snowball's own Augustana College. Worth reading about work-life balance.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/brenda-barness-best-career-move-was-quitting-a-great-job-1484908207

Comments

  • Thanks for the nod. Brenda's life was a cautionary tale: a wickedly smart small college econ major who, almost literally, worked herself to death for her employer. At the point that she resigned the presidency of Pepsi, she said she was leaving home at 5:30 each morning and returning between 10:00 and 11:00 each night. She'd look in on her kids and kiss their foreheads, but might not hear their voices - nor they, hers - for a week at a time.

    When she walked away, she said it wasn't that her kids needed her so much as she needed them.

    She throttled back, then got lured back (to Sara Lee), and suffered a catastrophic stroke. She walked away for good to work on her recovery and, eventually, became strong enough to return to the college's board of trustees. She was blunt, sensible and demanding. Despite my only occasional interactions with the board over the two decades since I was the dean, she always remembered me and offered a warm greeting.

    I'll miss her.

    David
  • David, I just knew you would round out the picture of a fine person. RIP Ms. Barnes.
  • NYT's David Leonhardt has a tribute today, Jan 24:

    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/24/opinion/brenda-barness-wisdom-and-our-anti-parent-workplace.html
    ... Barnes died last week, from a stroke, at the age of 63. She died at an unfairly young age, but lived a deeply fulfilling life. She reminds me of what the psychologist Amos Tversky said before his own early death: “Life is a book. The fact that it was a short book doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good book. It was a very good book...”
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