Thank You, Brett Robbs.

By / October 28, 2013 /

I know you’re not one for the spotlight so I apologize in advance for the public thank you note. It’s just that as I sat down to write this it felt too small. Maybe by sharing my gratitude with the world it will seem more worthy of one of the finest men I’ve ever met.

In a business dominated by greed and self-importance you started my career by teaching me humility and kindness. Most people probably don’t have someone to point to as the lone reason for their entire career, but I do. While I’ve been fortunate to work for and learn from some very smart people, none of it would have been possible if you hadn’t taken pity on me 14 years ago.

I knocked on your office door as a business major without a “book” or an idea of what a book was. A couple of days later I showed some horrible attempts at print ads that I drew with a box of colored pencils I bought at McGuckin’s. While this convinced me to be a copywriter it somehow convinced you to let me into the ad program. I’d like to flatter myself by saying you saw something in me, but as anyone who has ever met you knows, you were just being nice. As you always are.

Since then I’ve watched you grow CU’s ad program into one of the best of the country. Not because you taught every single student who came through the progam, but because you cared about each and every one of them. You’re the reason I was lucky enough to have Schoenie and Norm as teachers, and today’s students are lucky enough to have Austin, Barrett and Noah. You care, and you’ve always gone out of your way to find teachers who do as well.

I know I wasn’t the first beneficiary of your kindness (pity), nor the last, so on behalf of all of us, thank you. Enjoy retirement, you deserve it.

Sincerely,

Jeremy Seibold