Photos: Pat Burton retirement celebration

Colleagues came together on February 15, 2018 to wish Pat Burton well in retirement. Burton, manager of the Student Team in University Support Services' Engineering group, leaves the university after nearly 18 years of service.

His manager Jason Moeller attempted to tally up all the smart aleck remarks Burton must have made over the course of his career.

"It looks like he's averaging about three meetings a day. As you all know Pat, he has a smart aleck comment or two for each of those meetings," Moeller said. "According to my numbers, that adds up to a grand total of just over 21,000 smart aleck remarks over the last 18 years. Now, that's a job well done right there.” As for pranks, Moeller estimates Burton came close to 1,000.

"Wow, did I set a record?" Burton asked.

"You're right there at the top of the leader board," Moeller said.

As thanks – and friendly retribution – Burton's farewell gifts included golf balls to work on his game, tea packets (he's a bit of a connoisseur), a giant rubber band ball, honorary "Pat's Door" sign for the exit door by his office, and a jigsaw puzzle based on former President Obama's campaign poster and photo by colleague Jeramy Berry.

Joking aside, Moeller praised Burton for the impact he made on the organization.

"Besides being a great guy, and an awesome manager, he made things easy for us here," Moeller said. "The way he architected applications and systems, I've never seen anybody do it as well. Congratulations Pat for a great run."

"I will miss all of you," Burton said, in turn. "I've made a lot of friends, had a lot of good times, and I can't thank you enough for putting up with me. I want to especially thank my team. This team comes together and gets things done – whether it's upgrades or brand new software, we did a lot of impossible things. I'm more proud of them than anything that I've accomplished. ..."

Below are photos of the event.

 

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