Remembering Kirt

Last Tuesday, I found out that my former boss and friend, Kirt Card, had died Monday morning. The initial shock and disbelief became sadness when I read his touching obituary in the paper Wednesday morning. Now that I've had a few days to think about this, I wanted to write a recollection so I could remember a few of the great things about Kirt.

Kirt hired me as the press receptionist ten years ago this month. I first interviewed with the assistant customer service manager, Marcy, who asked me standard questions, then I met with Kirt for a little while. He was very soft spoken and didn't have the firmest hand shake, and I don't know that he really asked me any questions. He told me all about the job and what kinds of things I'd do as part of the customer service department when I wasn't distributing mail or answering the phone. He mentioned their fulfillment program, Cat's Pajamas. I remember thinking that was a funny name for a computer program.

I learned a lot in my first few months with the press about the book publishing business. Kirt took the time to teach me all of the fundamentals, from the difference in retail discounts to how we create our entry codes in Cats. I think early on Kirt would ask me to bring a book record up on my computer screen, like Little Britches by Ralph Moody. I'd slowly think through the entry code formula: first three letters of last name, then probably the first three letters of the title, and if it's a paperback, it's two letters plus an X. By the time I'd come up with MOOLIX, Kirt would have already told me what it was. It amazed me that he could come up with those codes so quickly. I'm faster now, but not as fast as Kirt.

Early on, I remember entering gratis copy orders for our sales reps into Cats, and the first one Kirt showed me how to do was for Mary Mellow. As he was helping me find her customer account, he started singing that mellow yellow song. For a quiet and reserved guy, I thought this was pretty funny. I remember another time that first summer where he had me entering an exhibit invoice and I kept messing up part of it. Kirt never lost his patience with me; he'd come back and explain each time what I had done wrong. That was the first day I ever saw Kirt go get lunch-I was sure that my mistakes had driven him to eat.

As quiet as Kirt was, he set a huge example for his staff. His knowledge of our book list was extensive, and he also knew about any other publication that came out of the University. I bet on an almost weekly basis I'd take a call from someone who was looking for the weeds of Nebraska book, which I knew wasn't ours but I'd never remember which department published it-Kirt would always get the customer to the right place.

Kirt loved what he did-that was obvious in the enthusiasm he shared when talking about funny customer requests or complaints. He and I used to take turns coming in over Christmas break to clear the voice mail of hang ups and take notes on any legitimate calls, and we enjoyed seeing who would get the highest number of hangups on their assigned days.

I think I felt close to Kirt in part because Corrie worked with his wife, Cheryl, in university housing. She was equally kind, thoughtful, and cheerful-she'd always keep on Corrie's case to bring me to the annual residence hall holiday dinner that she was in charge of. Corrie also worked with their daughters, in particular Deb and also Deb's husband Josh, so the Card family and Corrie and me were intertwined quite a bit. Corrie and I were with Deb on her 21st birthday, and I thought it was pretty funny that I was helping get my boss's daughter drunk. We went to Deb's graduation party at the Card house, too, which was the same day as the 2000 volleyball championship game. Her party partly consisted of us watching Nebraska win that championship in a tight 5 game match. Kirt and Cheryl were huge volleyball fans, and it was fun to watch them get so worked up about it. Their house was so comfy-I felt like I was at my own family gathering.

I think I got to know Cheryl better because I went to a few Pampered Chef, tupperware, Partylite etc. parties at their house. Of course there was always excellent snacks and vodka slush if you were lucky. Corrie and I went to all of the daughter's weddings. I remember when Rachel got married, the first of the three weddings, Kirt had to take dance lessons for the father-daughter dance, and he was nervous about it. It all went well, though! I caught the bouquet at that wedding, too.



I felt bad leaving Kirt and the customer service department in 2001 for a job in the marketing department, but I wanted new challenges, and I had to take advantage of the opportunity when it became available. I still got to work with Kirt-I'd need a copy of a book for something and he'd personally deliver it to me within hours. It's just how he did things.

In 2003, Kirt left the press without any warning. My heart sunk when I came into work that day and his office was cleared out. I think it must've been September of that year because I remember shopping for fall plants at Earl May that night and out of nowhere had to keep from crying because the whole thing hit me like a ton of bricks. I focused on my asters and got the heck out of there.

I'd get updates on Kirt from his kids or other people over the following years. It must've been early in 2006 that I heard he had a serious lung problem, then I heard that he and Cheryl were going to Missouri to see if he was a candidate for a lung transplant. Then came the awful news from Corrie-they had been in an accident on the way back (after finding out that yes, Kirt was a good candidate) and Cheryl had died and Kirt was in critical condition. I kept hoping that somehow he had the story wrong-there was just no way it could be true. I remember it being particularly awful to have to share that news with my co-workers, not only because so many of them were also close to Kirt and Cheryl, but also because I think just the week before that our co-worker Richard Eckersley had died. Those were brutal weeks.

I've thought about Kirt and Cheryl and their kids a lot over the past couple of years. I constantly bugged Corrie to get updates on Kirt from Deb when he'd see her; I regret not just calling their house to see how he was doing. Even though I now know he probably spent a lot of his last time very sad about Cheryl, I'm glad to know that he was still taking classes and had all those great grandkids to play with. Kirt and Cheryl did a heck of a job raising those girls-they are so strong, and they're my heroes. Kirt's passing gave those of us still at the press who knew him another chance to give him a proper sendoff. Tish came up with the great idea to have a food day in honor of Kirt on Friday, and we brought as many of the things that Kirt used to bring to food days that we could remember. (tortilla roll-ups, fruit pizza, banana cake, and the same Knorr soup mix spinach dip that Kirt made.) It was comforting. I'm also asking anyone who worked with Kirt to add their fond memories to a book that we can later give to the girls.