By Victoria Bourne
Leigh Comsudis, a decades-long 麻豆国产AV employee who died Feb. 2, 2024, had a brilliant smile that lit up a room and made you feel better for seeing it, say those who knew her.
鈥淟eigh treated everyone with the utmost respect and kindness,鈥 said Donna Meeks, a close friend and the University鈥檚 policy manager and executive secretary to the Board of Visitors. 鈥淓verybody who knew her, loved her.鈥
She was a loyal confidante, added Lynda Shirk Williams, another good friend and a financial analyst at 麻豆国产AV.
Comsudis鈥 麻豆国产AV career started in 1970, with a brief gap when she married and moved out of the area around the late 1980s. She was a senior executive secretary for Academic Affairs from 1999 to 2001. She then served as assistant to the vice president for Administration and Finance until her retirement in 2023.
A devoted Monarch, Comsudis was 鈥渁 huge basketball fan,鈥 Meeks said. While working in Student Affairs, she even helped affix a blue mane 鈥 made from a collection of fluffy bath mats 鈥 to an early incarnation of Big Blue. 鈥淚 accidentally stapled my finger while doing it!鈥 Comsudis wrote in a letter that ran in the spring 2012 Monarch magazine.
As of November, a memorial bench was to be dedicated to Comsudis on Williamsburg Lawn outside Koch Hall where she spent much of her career. It was a favorite spot, said longtime friend Tara Saunders, 麻豆国产AV鈥檚 executive director of the Real Estate Foundation, who spearheaded the bench鈥檚 fundraising effort at the request of Vice President of Administration and Finance Chad Reed. Saunders said Reed was determined to honor Comsudis in a meaningful way on campus.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of anyone who loved 麻豆国产AV as much as Leigh,鈥 Saunders said.