Incomparable Jonathan Tarr, Program Manager Emeritus

On Wednesday, we will all be weepy at HASTAC Central here at Duke.  It's the last day of work for Jonathan Tarr, HASTAC Program Manager, who will be moving to Michigan where he will be a graduate student in the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning. We will miss you, Jonathan, and will take enormous pride in your future accomplishments.

Jonathan started as my assistant when I was still Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies.  He was twenty-one, a recent Duke graduate, and working a summer job while we were interviewing for my new executive assistant.  Jonathan came to Duke from Las Vegas, New Mexico, a stunningly gorgeous town in the mountains of New Mexico.   At Duke, he worked as a work study student throughout his time, and managed to work in just about every major office on campus.  He learned everything about Duke and was beloved by all.   Every time we would interview another highly qualified person for our executive assistant job, my colleague Celeste Castillo Lee and I would sigh, "Well, they're okay, but they're not Jonathan."    When we asked Jonathan if he wanted to interview for the job, he gave us a resounding no.  He had other plans for paying off his student loans.

That's when we began working on him.   It took Celeste and me  a few weeks, working alone and in tandem, but finally Jonathan relented and said, yes, he'd interview . . . and, of course, he was so brilliant and knowledgeable and mature (at 21!) that he ended up resoundingly as our top candidate.

When I stepped down, after eight years as VPIS, and came to the Franklin Center, I of course asked Jonathan if he wanted to move with me and if he would serve as HASTAC's first Program Manager.  The rest is history.   Anyone who has had any dealings with HASTAC over the last four years, has encountered his constant wisdom, efficiency, determination, brilliance, kindness, wit, and maturity.   Sometimes I think he's calmer and smarter than all the rest of us.  Believe me, we were all relieved when he finally turned 25 this year.

You also know him from his frequent blogs on the HASTAC site, his "Information Highway to Nowhere" postings.  We think his future highways will lead somewhere, somewhere important. 

Jonathan will be moving on to the University of Michigan to work on public transportation in underserved rural areas.  His project statement for graduate school, describing the beautiful and yet relatively isolated town where he grew up, a community mostly of old Spanish-speaking (or not) Mexican families, Native Americans, and other New Mexican ranchers, talked about being in this astonishing rural place and yet living over the highway, with the constant noise of trucks going by and the constant pollution, and near the train tracks with the clatter of trains--and more pollution.  It is typical of him that, in going to graduate school, he also wants to give back.  He is a dedicated and caring person in every way. Jonathan was active throughout his Duke career in our LGBT center and in various other activities on campus and in the community.  He is a rare individual, beloved by all of us.  We know he will go far.

In honor of all he has done for HASTAC, we have decided to confer upon him the title of HASTAC Program Manager Emeritus.  We're also hoping he might be a HASTAC Scholar while he is a graduate student.  And we know that, in one way or another, we will always stay in touch, and will take enormous pride in all he has given to HASTAC and in all he will do in the future.

Thank you, Jonathan.   With love, from all of us at HASTAC.