Thanks For Being Here - Andy Ward's GQ Send-Off

Kelly Corrigan Wonders

Kelly Corrigan Show

Society & Culture

4.8 • 3.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 September 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Kelly shares the legendary farewell memo that GQ Editor-in-Chief Jim Nelson sent to his staff when Andy Ward left for Random House in 2009. This is workplace appreciation turned up to eleven—a memo so effusive, so unabashedly emotional and so beautifully over-the-top that it became the stuff of publishing legend. Through Nelson's tribute to Andy's "Olympian generosity of spirit" and "Andy Ward-ness," we get a glimpse into what it looks like when someone's professional impact is so profound that ordinary words simply won't do. Check out Kelly's interview with Andy HERE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deep-dive-with-andy-ward-on-great-coaching/id1532951390?i=1000728012046 To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, everyone. Welcome to Thanks for being here, a short weekly pod to remind us of the many
0:05.4	essential and beautiful ways we affect one another. Every Sunday, I'll read a submission from a
0:12.1	listener of Kelly Corrigan Wonders. Could be wedding vows or a bat mitzvah toast, a eulogy, or
0:17.3	retirement speech. We believe this is probably the loveliest way to tap into our better
0:22.8	selves and remember our highest values. We encourage you to share this podcast each week with one
0:29.1	person you love, maybe someone you miss and need to bring closer, someone you want to feel
0:34.5	your appreciation or admiration or both.
0:40.0	This is thanks for being here.
0:54.4	This week, our deep dive episode was a conversation I had with my editor at Random House.
0:55.8	His name is Andy Ward.
0:59.6	And I thought for a follow-up, thanks for being here,
1:01.9	I would share this incredible letter that his boss at GQ, where he worked
1:05.7	before he went to Random House in 2009,
1:08.7	sent to all the staff when Andy announced that he was leaving.
1:13.1	So here is Jim Nelson's letter about Andy Ward's departure from GQ way back in 2009.
1:22.3	Dear all, I do not like writing these words and I am deeply sad to have to tell you, or if you've heard, repeat the news to you, but our beloved Andy Ward is leaving us.
1:33.0	He's going to become a book editor and more heading a revamped nonfiction department as a vice president for Random House.
1:40.6	It's huge and it's a wonderful thing. Sad as I am, I know it is the job he has always wanted,
1:46.1	that he deserves, and that will lead to many great books and much satisfying work for Andy.
1:51.2	My bet, and I know you would all join me in this easy wager, is that he will become the best
1:57.0	book editor in America. Words fail. There are none that I can think of, even if I string a
2:03.2	whole bunch of them together that can capture my gratitude and respect for Andy, the level of either
	...

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