The Many Fond Memories of Sho Chandra
The outpouring today in memory of Sho Chandra is but one testament to how special a friend, colleague and journalist she was.
Within about two hours of the news this morning, there were dozens of tweets. That’s without even searching for them. Plus this obituary by TalkingBizNews’ Chris Roush.
One thing many of these sentiments have in common is they came from current and former Bloomberg journalists who also counted Sho as a friend. Other commonalities were membership in the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, where she was on the board. Some also are members of the National Press Club. Sho sometimes would meet people there, including many of us.
My request earlier today, in my brief recollections of Sho, for photographs of her and recollections of Sho also underlined her importance to many.
Here are some of them:
Written by Bloomberg colleague Sue Decker, this was read aloud to a celebration last year of Sho’s 20 years at Bloomberg. She began there in 1998, the same year as me and as several others:
“Sho has been in Washington for a long time, but she will always be a member of the Princeton Mafia. These were the company reporters and editors who formed the core of company news coverage before New York took control of it.
John McCorry was the capo bureau chief, and Jim Greiff was consigliere deputy. Following a stint in GA, Sho was a soldier on the retail team, with Galen Meyer as her crew chief. Our office was in the midst of corn fields. You can imagine the smell when it was being fertilized.
It was a crazy time at Bloomberg, where people frequently worked a dozen hours a day, and there was an entire team dedicated to summarizing other news organizations’ work. Retail reporters like Sho never got a day off between Black Friday and Christmas. It was hard to get people to call you back because they had never heard of Bloomberg News. But, at least we got breakfast, awesome lunches, and 3 p.m. snacks, plus the odd Bloomberg-branded tchotchke that would be left on your desk when you went to the restroom.
Time off was spent at the Tiger’s Tale, which is still there. Sometimes you could get Glenn Holdcraft to pay for it.
From Glenn:
What I truly miss are those frequent (sometims daily!) apres work gatherings we’d have at the Rocky Hill Inn, or Tiger’s Tale, or any other watering hole we could find, when most of the GA crew was young and relatively unattached and carefree. That socialization was a huge part of GA … Sho was a huge part of that. I was never quite sure if it was a self-appointed social director position, or if there was an actual election, but regardless, Sho was front and center of the festivities. I think I was encouraged to attend because my card may have been a little bit greener.
Give her a big hug for me! It’s been a long, strange trip!
Scott Lanman, Jonathan Make, Josh Fineman, Nathan Levy, Kerry Dooley, Joanne Norton, Marion Gammill — these were some of the friends that would hang out with Auntie Sho.
She would give them diminutive terms of endearment — Ron Day was Ronny Din, Deborah Stern was Little Deb, Kim Chipman is The Chipster and Jonathan Make was Little Jonny Make. She still calls that to him even though he’s almost 42, has a child and is more than a foot taller than her.
I reached out to some of the old Princeton crowd and every single person talked about her kindness, grace under pressure and ability to make everyone feel like her friend.
Jon Make cited `her cute sayings. Like, cheeky monkey. And touch wood, instead of knock on wood.’
`Her way of saying things always makes you feel calm, even in the midst of the most chaotic newsroom.’
He and his wife, Courtney Schlisserman, another Bloomberg alum, said she is `gentle and doesn’t upset people or get upset.’
Josh Fineman recalled how, in 2008, Sho brought up his wife’s engagement ring …
`She was a crucial part of getting the ring — I’ll be married a decade this year thanks to Sho.’
Josh said that, in his early years, Sho was like a mom to him. She is, he said, `one of the best/finest/nicest/most caring citizens Bloomberg has ever known.’”
More memories of Sho from Katia Dmitrieva, who until Sho’s death covered the U.S. economy with her:
“I’m so sorry for the loss of an incredible woman.” Katia called Sho “a dynamic human being. Sho and I are deskmates, we covered the U.S. economy together since I moved to the bureau a year ago.
I haven’t known her nearly as long as some of my colleagues and others in the industry, but a few things I can say for sure: She was full of energy, every single day; perpetually patient (can you really call it patience if she always seemed happy to chat and answer your endless questions on indicator tickers?); and was dedicated to her job, even if it meant staying late or working through lunch and getting reprimanded by her desk-mate for skipping a meal or staying past 7 p.m. again. And she would say `I know, yes, but I just need to finish this one thing’ and go right back to it. [Editor’s note: Sho did this in her very first months at Bloomberg, too.]
That was usually how you got Sho to attend a meeting or record a (live!) video — practically pulling her away from the desk. She wanted to get things right.
And she always did get it right. And had a wealth of knowledge to back it up, though she never paraded it — she was so humble, with no ego.
She was endlessly thoughtful. She has an automatic pencil sharpener on her table and before sticking one of her dozens of pencils in, would shout `noise alert!’ so that we wouldn’t be alarmed by the noise. She helped organize — working on short notice — an anniversary event for a colleague and recruited people to share memories. And after her mother passed away, and some of us attended the funeral, she pulled me aside in the newsroom: `Thank you for coming.’ The strength it takes to be in that situation and yet still have the presence of mind to thank someone for being there — that’s stuck with me.
She has a pair of ancient headphones sitting on her desk with a sticker of Ricky Martin’s face, tape holding the earphones and band together. She always let me borrow them when I forgot mine, and would endure my ribbing about the stickers. Before she left on her trip just a few weeks ago, she said `I bequeath these to you in my absence.’ I’m looking at them right now. And so it seems as if she’s still here, that she’ll come shuffling down the row any time now, eyes sparkling, earrings swinging. (I’ve never seen the same pair of earrings twice and she often matched them to her top, which I found truly impressive) and smiling her cheeky smile (`cheeky monkey was one of her favorite sayings).
Typical Sho is playful Sho. She hummed with energy. Words and laughter would bubble out. There were maybe two days I can recall when she was subdued or had a headache but aside from that, it was energy: She would jump up to chat with people, comment when she overheard conversations in our row of desks, and talked to herself. A lot. That was something we had in common, and one of the first things she said when I joined: `OK guys, you now have two crazy people sitting side-by-side over here, talking to themselves.’
I’ll miss that voice. The world is a much quieter place without it.”
Chris Roush’s obit of Sho and his tweet about it spurred a great many reactions in Twitter. Below are a sampling of these and other tweets. Thanks to Chris for having curated these by retweeting them.
This tweet by Steve Matthews, who covered the economy with Sho, got a lot of retweets and likes.
“Absolutely heartbreaking news is the loss of one of shining lights of Bloomberg’s economic team — smart, funny, cynical, beloved by everyone who knows her. Wanted to make sure her many friends in the industry are aware of this.”
From Patricia Laya, another colleague (here):
“Bright, sweet and sharp-witted, Sho taught me to fight back when it matters and laugh off the small stuff. A truly special friend who will be so missed.”
Writes the Charlotte Observer’s Katie Peralta:
“Sho took me under her wing and provided incredible warmth and guidance when I was an intern at Bloomberg. I’m heartbroken to hear this.”
Remembers Shannon Pettypiece, also from Bloomberg:
Sho “was one of the best economic reporters in the biz, hands down. You’d bump into her in the lady’s room and get into a 10 min conversation about jobs numbers that made you think about things in a whole new way. Her energy, intellect and warmth is deeply missed already.”
Tweets Greg Stohr, also at Bloomberg:
“In addition to being a fabulous journalist, Sho was just a wonderful person be around.”
Says MarketWatch columnist Rex Nutting (here):
“A good reporter and a great human.”
From Robert Marchini, a political risk strategist who read Sho’s work on the Bloomberg terminal (see here):
“this is awful — i found her summaries of economics data on @TheTerminal to be clear, concise, and to the point.”
Probably a dozen people emailed me today to say that they are planning on writing their own recollections of the good friend who I called “Auntie.”
Please share your thoughts whenever they are ready, and I’ll do update(s) as warranted. You can tweet to me, comment on this blog post or on Facebook or email me at press@warren-news.com.
