Jamie Solomon Narkunski
Jamie ardently loved life and lived with thoughtful determination, kept moving ever onward, always seeking opportunity for growth with space for abundance in his heart.
Jamie was ever impressive, more awesomely so because he didn’t believe in succeeding alone, wanting everyone around him to grow and thrive. Through challenges and anxieties, Jamie found a quiet confidence, always showing up with his best self, ever present, funny, curious, and furiously loving.
Jamie started life never far from the ocean and beaches of South Jersey. In his formative years he attended Hebrew Academy, played hockey alongside his younger brother, Mark, rowed on the crew team in high school, and played guitar. When Jamie and I met in a printmaking class at Stockton University, he was the singer and guitarist in one of several bands he would form or join in young adulthood, writing post -punk -hardcore songs. Jamie prepared for shows, lowering the soft top to his Volkswagen Cabrio to fit his guitar amp in the back seat. Some will remember the time he bought a MicroKORG and recorded some improvised solo pieces under the name “Get Crazy,” while sitting on the floor of my apartment. He even flew to Rome to entertain being in a professional punk band. So many friendships began after exchanging observations of each others’ ska and fringe punk tattoos.
From a character-building start in life, Jamie resolved to make his way and prove his worth. Grandson of Holocaust survivors Riva and Samuel, and son of a special-needs school teacher, Hannah, Jamie learned the value of life and people. He started as a kid in the workforce pulling weeds roadside with ruffled frustration. In college he biked across the Ocean City Bridge to and from work. And from the day he finished his Bachelor’s degree his determination was evident, installing tile through the end of school, applying for jobs in Philadelphia at night. Finding a tech support job at The Neat Company, subletting a closet-sized room, he volunteered to work the night shift, assisting coworkers and interceding difficult support calls from huffy customers.
Refining a balance of strength and sensitivity, Jamie never stood idle if someone was being hurt. He defended my honor against hooligans on more than one occasion, and many times thwarted bullies of friends and colleagues. In moments of reflection he often felt some of these responses were not very valorous, and he grew, as many things in life can only be learned from experience.
Jamie learned to code by volunteering on friends’ projects. In a few short years he had many roles and honed a skillbase built on his penchant for problem-solving, learning about people and designing for them. He found consulting work in user experience, design and strategy for ThoughtWorks, traveling coast to coast and abroad realizing the work that excited him most was for social good. His anxious, driven mind was insatiable. The kid with an arts management and history degree would come to direct large teams at a multinational tech company all by his early thirties. But that was never his goal. His achievements were built on unwavering tenacity, a light-hearted disposition, authentic empathy, and thoughtfulness. He was honest, true to himself, and focused on what was essential.
Jamie changed jobs so frequently in pursuit of his passions that it made me dizzy, but he is my person, an exceptional person, whose encouragement makes you want to be better.
Jamie’s work and talent did not go unnoticed and he became the Sr Director of Strategy and Enablement at The Ultimate Software Group where he guided work and teams across the world. His colleagues share that he made them feel valued, supported, empowered, and inspired. He would read books on designing for all, how different cultures communicate, and was excited to bring that to his teams to inform their work. The company has dedicated an internal award in his name, The Jamie Narkunski Innovation Award.
As a teenager Jamie expressed wanting a home where he could entertain friends, laughing and sharing food. Growing up and realizing a house wasn’t his answer, he seized an opportunity and together with our “captive friends” Harold and Jean in tow, fled across the country, where we kept a second room just for family and friends to visit. Though some were apprehensive due to our consistently incalculable cat, Jean.
Jamie would comment on the burdensome responsibility of pets, but he was the one at two in the morning having Jean tattooed on his arm and often found hugging our dog Harold in bed.
In California, an established love for rock climbing and a developing enthusiasm for mountain biking took on a greater role in our lives. We found fun and peace in a commitment to adventure, being outdoors, and pushing our limits. It helped us make more space for growth and in that time Jamie started to hone in on what could be the purpose in his life’s work.
With joyful mischievousness he was always the puckish prankster. He relished recalling that as a loving son in boyhood, he hid beneath Hennie’s bed waiting for her to get up in the morning so he could grab her ankles. In the first year of dating he called me over in urgency saying he’d fallen and to come but not panic. When I arrived seeing him sitting on the kitchen floor, leg covered in a catsup concoction, I was mid-faint when he sprung to his feet. I don’t recall whether it was before this or after, when driving to see him in those early days, a feeling took a seat in my heart and I knew he was the one.
I rescued Jamie’s discarded scribblings, and framed his provocative watercolors that he was too embarrassed to be displayed, so he hid them away.
Jamie sketched conversations he overheard on flights, explored irreverent greeting card designs, improvised unflattering yet abstractly uncanny resemblances of me, and imparted a joyful pride for his rendering of a wild witch wearing knee pads.
Though he never compared himself to others, other than his perfect calves, this one time he saw a person on the sidewalk wearing the same knit beanie as him and professed he looked better in it so he sketched her too, for proof.
While working from home, actively listening on conference lines and providing feedback, he would playfully devise papercraft sculptures in miniature and draw pensive creatures pondering life’s purpose.
On the last morning Jamie was with us, he was giving to the last minute. Jamie leaves a unfillable void. He is and will always be dearly missed.
Jamie and I sought meaningful purpose, wanting to give back as much as we could, by supporting different causes, volunteering our time, donating to support human, environmental, and wildlife both locally and globally. We loved art and supporting artists, building our own small art collection from artists we knew or met. Jamie supported me in my ecological pursuits by joining me in volunteer stewardship events.
In that spirit of giving to your local community or to global causes, please consider volunteering or donating to a charity of your choice in honor of Jamie and his drive to make the world a little better. Jamie was gathering his building blocks for a strong foundation so that he could create something to serve people. Though he may never have really known his impact, he contributed immeasurably to those around him. Jamie did not have the chance to experience all he dreamed of, to give all he intended and consciously worked towards in his life. Maybe you can extend some of that love and energy for Jamie, for yourself, and for us all.
Jamie would urge you to seek opportunities which speak to you. Think of Jamie and how he lived - thoughtfully giving his ear, his feedback, and support, seeing opportunities to give of himself in the everyday. And please remember to embrace life with room for abundance in your heart, make space for curiosity and choose adventure because it’s all in the journey.