Sean Jamieson, 60, served as an unofficial ambassador from Charlotte to the world.
Obituary authored by friend and classmate, Abdon Pallasch.
The Charlotte Observer assistant business editor-turned-corporate communications executive for Bank of America and TIAA toured six continents, bringing his nieces and nephews on safaris in Africa; hikes through the Andes, the Pyrenees, the Himalayas; holidays in Paris.
“Sean was not a person who had to be told to take time off from work,” said his sister, Ellen Jamieson Sandoval. “And he was not a person who said, ‘Someday, after retirement, I’ll take that trip I’ve been thinking of. He loved, like really LOVED, to plan these trips.”
Jamieson entertained fellow travelers, friends and co-workers with his dry wit and story-telling prowess. He gave back to his community, helping build houses with Habitat for Humanity though his long-time parish, St. Gabriel Catholic Church, and regularly volunteered at the Second Harvest Food Bank.
I met Sean our first day at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and enjoyed his sense of humor and travel proclivities for the past 43 years. We formed an inseparable quartet of friends – two journalism students and two computer engineers – who’d travel the country and the world and take in at least one game with our beloved Northwestern Wildcats every year. We were there for Northwestern’s once-every-100-years trip to the Rose Bowl in 1995. Sean could always be found at Wallace Wade Stadium when Northwestern played Duke.
Sean was not the oldest of our quartet, but quickly became the father figure because of his maturity. It wasn’t just that he towered over us in height. Perhaps it was because his father had a disabling stroke when Sean was just 13, requiring Sean to take on some adult responsibilities helping his mom raise his three younger siblings, his sister said.
Sean had a voice smooth enough for broadcast journalism and entertained friends with his dead-on impressions of popular radio D.J.s. But he ultimately opted for a career in newspapers, heading northwest to the Spokane, Wash., Spokesman-Review and the Boise, Idaho, Statesman, then, after earning a master’s degree in public administration at Cornell University, Sean made his way to the Charlotte Observer in 1994, settling on the business desk.
Tall and skinny, Sean had eyebrows that arched and traveled unusually high on his sizable forehead – kind of like Leonard Nimoy’s or Stephen Colbert’s – when he was skeptical or shocked by a story you were telling him. A new business reporter filing an inadequately sourced story to Sean would see the eyebrows rise and quickly realize they needed to reinforce their story.
In our polarized age, Sean could argue politics and policy from deep conviction and a storehouse of knowledge. I’d have to bring my A-game to our robust discussions, which generally found us on opposite sides – his National Review uncomfortably rubbing elbows with my Mother Jones in our mailbox. I stayed with Sean while attending the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte 2012 and he loved meeting some of Chicago’s most colorful political personalities when I brought him to the after-parties. Sean always enjoyed a glass of “good red” wine with his discussions.
After his wake at McEwen’s Pineville Chapel April 24, we retired to one of Sean’s favorite haunts, Sir. Edmond Halley’s, where Sean’s travel companions shared stories of his legendary detailed itineraries for his sojourns. Sean’s nieces and nephews recalled with some amusement the schedules that Uncle Sean compiled for their trips to make sure no sights went unseen.
“For anyone who traveled with Sean, a written, planned, timed-out, down-to-the-last-detail itinerary would always be forthcoming once you said yes to a trip with him – you just came to expect it,” Sandoval said.
They did not always work out, as Sean learned hiking through the Pyrenees on what was supposed to be a 13-kilometer hike, but turned out to be a 13-mile hike, which led to Sean having to put up with a half-hour harangue in Spanish from an angry Cab driver who had to return to pick up Sean’s crew hours after he was supposed to pick them up, Sean’s friend Tom Hayes recalled.
Sean’s propensity to plan started young. He drew up a detailed work plan for our off-campus apartment at Northwestern sophomore year. When he told me my duties would include watering the plants three times a week, I laughed and told him not to expect this level of organization from teenage boys.
Sean appeared to mellow in recent years. When the Northwestern Wildcats played the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers in Dublin, Ireland, a few years ago – the only game Northwestern won that season – Sean did NOT draw up a detailed itinerary for our week in Dublin. He found a charming Air B&B for us and we whimsically decided what to do each day.
Tom & I got to the Irish Whiskey Museum 20 minutes ahead of Sean. Skipping the exhibits, we went straight to the Tasting Room at the end, where the bartenders gave us samples of the finest Irish whiskeys. We warned them our friend Sean Jamieson would soon arrive seeking his namesake whiskey. (Almost: Sean’s last name has an “i.” Ireland’s most popular whiskey lacks the “i.”)
Sean arrived and ordered a glass of Jameson’s whiskey. Well-primed, the bartenders lit into him: “Jameson’s?!? That’s the cheap shite we make for Yanks! Here, try some proper Irish Whiskey…” Sean’s eyebrows shot up. Tom & I laughed so hard.
Sean was healthy and trim. He swam several times a week. But he got an appendiceal cancer diagnosis in January. He was told the median survival rate was three years. We all were shocked and began making plans for final travel adventures this summer and next. He passed away much sooner than expected three months later on April 19.
After visitations in Charlotte and his native Elmhurst, Ill., he was laid to rest in Hillside, Ill. He is survived by his mother, Carol (Hattenhauer) Jamieson; sisters Ellen Jamieson Sandoval; Lorraine Strittmatter (Chad); brother Andrew Jamieson (Beth) and many nieces, nephews and other family and close friends.
Donations in Sean’s name can be made to Second Harvest Food Bank (https://www.secondharvestmetrolina.org/) or Habitat for Humanity of the Charlotte Region (https://www.habitatcltregion.org/).
Former Chicago Sun-Times Political Reporter Abdon Pallasch now serves as director of communications for the Cook County Circuit Court.
