Tafari Campbell, a personal chef for former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, has died at 45.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Massachusetts State Police diver teams retrieved the former White House sous chef’s body from the Edgartown Great Pond close to the Obamas’ Martha’s Vineyard house just after 10 a.m. Monday.
“Tafari was a beloved part of our family. When we first met him, he was a talented sous chef at the White House — creative and passionate about food and its ability to bring people together,” the Obamas recalled of their family chef turned friend, the Sun-Times reported. “In the years that followed, we got to know him as a warm, fun, extraordinarily kind person who made all of our lives a little brighter.”
The State Police Detective Unit for the Cape and Islands District and the Edgartown Police Department are investigating the drowning.
The search was launched at 7:46 p.m. on Sunday when Martha’s Vineyard police and fire agencies responded to a report of “a male paddle boarder who had gone into the water, appeared to briefly struggle to stay on the surface, and then submerged and did not resurface.”
At the time, Campbell was on the pond with another paddleboarder, who saw him submerge.
Massachusetts Environmental Police officers used side-scan sonar that they “deployed from a boat,” recovering Campbell’s body around 100 feet from shore at a depth of roughly 8 feet.
The Obama family has been visiting Martha’s Vineyard for a portion of the summer for years.
Massachusetts State Police said Campbell, a Dumfries, Virginia, native, was on vacation in Martha’s Vineyard at the time of his death. The Obamas weren’t at home when the accident happened.
Campbell was one of the chefs known for brewing White House honey ale beer with honey from Michelle Obama’s well-known South Lawn garden during his time as a top White House chef.
The Obamas said in their statement that they grew so fond of Campbell that they requested he remain with them when they exited the White House in 2017, and he “generously agreed.”
“He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone,” the former first family added. “Today we join everyone who knew and loved Tafari — especially his wife Sherise and their twin boys, Xavier and Savin — in grieving the loss of a truly wonderful man.”
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