We had a dozen early retirements in the newsroom and co-workers last days have been staggered throughout the month.

Today is the final day for Jeff Jordan, "Jordy" to all of us here.

You know the scene in the Wizard of Oz when Dorothy says she'll miss the Scarecrow the most? I think everyone here feels that about Jordy. (We liked everyone else who left, too).

Jordy will do a part-time gig on the sports desk, so he'll still be among us a couple of times a week, but his leaving got me thinking of the legacies we leave behind in our workplaces. They can be almost as important as the legacies we leave behind in families.

Jordy leaves this workplace legacy:

1) Always positive. Took time to call or email you if he liked your story.

2) In the darkest of times here, and believe me we had some dark days between 2003 and 2008, Jordy always pointed out something here we should be grateful for. Including having a newspaper job.

3) He always made you feel like the most important person he could be talking with at that moment.

4) He was (and still is) funny and fun.

5) He never, that I recall, said anything mean about another co-worker. And if you did, he always tried to point something out good about that person.

6) He worked his butt off until the end (actually everyone who left did the same).

Jordy, good luck on the next chapter. See you around the sports "arena" here. You've been an amazing blessing to me these past 27 years here.

(Photo of Jordy, left, on his first day of work here, summer 1972) 

---

---