Kentosh

One of the great things about working in advertising is the fun, creative people you get to work with every day. I’ve met many remarkable writers and designers over the years. Some of the relationships ended when the job ended, some of them became dear friends.

My buddy Kentosh fell somewhere in the middle. I found out yesterday that she died.

I loved Kentosh, but we weren’t in each other’s inner circle of friends. I met her when I was in my twenties. When that job ended, we were only sporadically in touch. Happily, in the last ten years or so, new jobs, email and Facebook reconnected us. We’d do lunch or an occasional weekend get-together.

The last month or so, I noticed Kentosh wasn’t posting on Facebook. I wondered why. Her obituary in Sunday’s paper offered the explanation. She had suffered a series of strokes, starting after Christmas. I didn’t even know she’d been sick.

So Kentosh is on my mind and since I tend to write about things that are on my mind, here we are.

Her name was Karen Kentosh. All of us who worked with her back in the day called her Kentosh. I don’t know why.

Kentosh was a talented, meticulous writer and also a charming cartoonist. Her little drawings and characters always made me smile. We called her Kentosh, but I know her nickname among other friends was Toons.

Kentosh and I, along with a couple other co-workers, were founding members of an elite social group called the Hell Hogs. Hell Hog meetings convened at lunch or happy hour. This may surprise you, but the Hell Hogs were not always well behaved. We took extended lunches. We sometimes drank at lunch. We lied about birthdays so we could get free dessert. We were loud. We thought we were hysterically funny but in reality we were probably obnoxious. It was so much fun and I still have my Hell Hog badge.

In the early days, Kentosh and I decided we should quit the advertising biz and open our own bar: Tosh & Gioff’s. Sadly, plans never progressed beyond the name.

Kentosh was about ten years older than I. When we first met, I thought she was the coolest person ever. Funny. Irreverent. Daring.

As we matured, I began to also appreciate her intelligence, her passion for politics and the environment, and her compassion for others.

This past September, Kentosh, two other Hell Hogs and I tried to organize a mini reunion. It didn’t happen, and that's a shame. It would have been great to hang with Kentosh one more time.


Kentosh Self Portrait