Obama’s private chef recognized as paddleboarder recovered from Martha’s Winery pond

Native Information

“Tafari was a beloved a part of our household.”

Former President Barack Obama’s private chef has drowned close to the household’s house on Martha’s Winery.

Massachusetts State Police confirmed that the paddleboarder whose physique was recovered by divers from Edgartown Nice Pond on Monday was Tafari Campbell, 45, of Dumfries, Virginia.

Campbell was paddle boarding with another person close to Turkeyland Cove shortly earlier than 8 p.m. Sunday when he went “into the water, appeared to briefly wrestle to remain on the floor, after which submerged and didn’t resurface,” police stated in an preliminary launch.

Campbell was visiting Martha’s Winery, state police stated, and the Obamas weren’t at their island house on the time of the incident. Barack and Michelle Obama remembered Campbell in an announcement Monday.

“Tafari was a beloved a part of our household. After we first met him, he was a proficient sous chef on the White Home — artistic and enthusiastic about meals, and its potential to deliver folks collectively. Within the years that adopted, we obtained to know him as a heat, enjoyable, terribly form one that made all of our lives a little bit brighter,” the Obamas stated.

“That’s why, after we had been on the brink of go away the White Home, we requested Tafari to stick with us, and he generously agreed. He’s been a part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are damaged that he’s gone.”

Emergency personnel from a number of companies looked for Campbell Sunday night time earlier than pausing till Monday morning. Environmental police used “side-scan sonar from a ship” to find his physique earlier than divers recovered it, police stated.

Campbell’s physique was recovered shortly earlier than 10 a.m. Monday morning about 100 toes from shore in about eight toes of water, police stated. 

The Obamas stated Campbell is survived by his spouse and their twin boys.