We were warned. When Claire Rittershaus joined Bocoup, Rick sent out an e-mail stating, “she loves to smile.” It’s not that we didn’t believe him; we just didn’t understand. Claire loves to make other people happy, so her regular smiling has been a dependable indicator of our well-being over the past three years.
Between company retreats (“Bocoupfests”), movie screenings (the “Tastemaker’s Movie Club”), and impromptu ice cream socials/beach parties, she was in a perpetual state of preparing good times for her team. She fostered crucial relationships with some of Boston’s finest lunch providers, securing tasty, tasty meals on a regular basis. Bocoup is a distributed company, though, and we’ve always had teammates who couldn’t attend these events. If Claire’s ever heard the adage, “out of sight, out of mind,” you wouldn’t know it. She mailed out ice cream gift certificates, sticker-adorned affirmations, and sympathy cards when our favorite Japanese wrestlers were ill.
She didn’t reserve that energy for her co-workers, either. Claire has been a tireless chaperone for our meetups. She was a host to hundreds of area web developers as they taught, learned, networked, and socialized at the Bocoup Loft. During a brief stint where the Loft was out of commission, Claire got creative and organized some of my all-time favorite meetups in the public parks of Boston and Cambridge.
Maybe you don’t live in Boston, though. Maybe you only know Bocoup for its logo and stickers. Well, if you’ve ever requested stickers from Bocoup, you’ve received them in an ultra-classy wax-sealed envelope. That was Claire.
So hopefully now you’ll understand why whenever Claire went on vacation, we would nervously joke about the disarray which would transpire. During her tenure at Bocoup, she was never gone for long enough for us to mess things up too badly. That said, it was only 2 months after her departure that our office caught fire. This could be a coincidence, of course, but I have a feeling Claire would have stopped it. Whatever the case may be, we’re no less grateful for her efforts.
Thank you, Claire! We’ll miss you!
