After 18 years, a farewell to Yale

Visitors to the Office of Alumni Affairs will still be able to help themselves to a donut or some candy from the ever-present dish by the door. But the cheery smile and boundless enthusiasm Sharon R. McManus brought to her job as director of alumni affairs, a post she assumed in 2000, will be absent. (Not to mention the Irish soda bread she brought each year on St. Patrick’s Day.)

Alumni around the country got to know McManus during her frequent trips organizing receptions and meetings, as well as at the annual reunion where she was, as office administrator Patricia DiNatale said, the “ambassador of smiles.” In addition to planning and overseeing the annual reunion, McManus launched a Web-based program to enlist alumni as mentors for current students, especially during the residency application process.

After 18 years at Yale, including 16 at the School of Medicine, McManus left in May to join the staff of the Nightingale-Bamford School, a K-12 school for girls in New York City.

At a farewell party in early May, an ode to McManus written by a colleague recalled her “smiling face, that sweet Irish laughter … For all who visit alumni affairs, you’re engulfed with the feeling someone truly cares!”