Stuart Shurtleff passed away Wednesday. He was a friend of mine, in the way that all audio mixers are friends. That is to say, I knew him, understand and respected what he did, and may have even had a drink or two with him in a hotel bar somewhere. Stuart mixed the Broadcast Center for the X-Games the last five years. His job, coordinating all the audio feeds from the six different venues, announce positions and a myriad of other ‘surprises’, was probably the most thankless job at the X Games, and he always had a smile (or maybe it was a grimace…) for me when I saw him.

I learned of his passing in a two sentence e mail which read ‘Stuart Shurtleff passed away earlier today due to a heart attack. Please pass this information along to those who may not know.’ All I could think is that this man’s life has abruptly ended, and this is how he is eulogized?

The next day, e-mails started coming in, saying that there was no one funnier than Stuart on the CBS golf tour, that he aspired to be a great teacher, teaching bartenders all over the world how to make the perfect margarita, and grading their efforts.

Then I was sent a link to his website and was amazed at what I learned. Stuart and his wife Lynn have built a RAILROAD on their property. Incredible! I had never heard about this from anyone, and it is amazing to think that someone would go through all the trouble and effort to build a railroad for the sheer pleasure of having one. The ‘Happenings‘ link said how he was planning this fall to get ‘at least another two or three hundred feet of track laid’.

Life is short, and when it ends, it is sudden, swift, and worst of all for you, final. The mortgage doesn’t matter anymore. Nothing does. All you did is all you will do. That’s it. Seems that Stuart made the best of it, I mean how can you say he didn’t? He taught at Margarita U. and had a train running through his yard. I realize that I didn’t know Stuart at all, other than the X Games Broadcast Center mixer with a worse job than mine. I also realized I will miss him, in the way that freelancers miss each other when there is a long time between path crossings.

Make the best of what little time you have left. Build that railroad, take the trip, take a break, walk barefoot in the snow. Fuck it. That clock is tick-tick-ticking…

Author: frenchy