During a farewell party at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, former associate vice president for news and communications David Jarmul was given a Blue Devil gnome.
He is taking advantage of the present.
Jarmul and his wife have been traveling around the United States since his retirement in June after 14 years leading Duke News, and have made a habit of putting photographs of the gnome—which holds a tiny basketball in its right hand—on Instagram wherever they go.
Among the locations they have visited are Iowa, which will host the presidential caucuses next February, and Mount St. Helens in Skamania County, Wash.
"[Those who gave me the gnome] said jokingly that we might bring him along on our travels. I decided to take them up on the suggestion and have some fun with it," Jarmul wrote in an email Thursday.
The pioneer of online initiatives such as Duke Today, Jarmul noted that he and his wife just finished the third week of a two-month journey that can be tracked with the gnome photos. He wrote that they are currently in Portland, and plan to visit San Diego and several southern cities before returning to Durham in early September.
After returning to Durham after the trip, Jarmul and his wife will travel to Nepal—where they met while he was serving in the Peace Corps—though he wrote that they will not be taking the gnome with them.
Jarmul seems to be enjoying retirement—his successor, Kristen Brown, was recently announced—while getting a kick out of the social media tools that helped him transition Duke's Office of News and Communications into the digital age.
"Where will G bring his Blue Devil charm next? Keep watching," he wrote.
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