The Kelley School of Business at IUPUI is mourning the loss of a beloved member of our family. Jean Plunkett passed away January 9, after complications during an outpatient procedure.
Jean was the assistant director of the Randall L. Tobias Leadership Center for Excellence for more than nine years, helping the educational programs and events grow tremendously in that time. She was a close friend to many in the Kelley School and beyond. Her happiness was infectious to all who had the good fortune to know her or, simply, to pass her in the halls. Jean is deeply, deeply missed.
“Jean was one of those people who made the world a happier place,” said Carol Madison, who, as former executive director of the Tobias Center, worked with Jean for years. “It wouldn’t do Jean justice to describe her as a person who stopped and smelled the roses. She was the kind of person who would wander off the path, poke around and find beautiful roses hidden someplace; then, she’d call you over to enjoy them.”
Jean was an integral part of the Tobias Center. Carol describes Jean as the creative arm of the center—In fact, she adds, many of the locations used today for Tobias Center events and programs were discovered by Jean—because she and her partner, Brian, wandered down a backroad one weekend, simply living life. That’s how the Hoosier Fellows’ pit stop challenge location, held at Putnam County Road Course, was discovered.
“There aren’t many people like Jean, who are able to discover things other people missed, and really enjoy life that way,” said Carol.