It is difficult to remember when I meet people for the first time. Maybe it’s because I tend not to value first impressions, which basically tell me nothing about a person. Every once in awhile someone sticks out in my mind anyway. Aaron Cody is one of those people. From the very beginning I recognized that Aaron was a guy that had more to him than meets the eye. All I remember about our meeting was thinking that Aaron could do with a dose of confidence. I learned later that he doesn’t lack confidence, he simply exudes patience.

This is a tribute to the man who exemplified success without being on center stage. Now a senior and graduating, I can’t help but feel like Linfield will be losing one of its more valuable pieces. Though he would prefer to disappear in two weeks with no attention paid towards him, I can’t justify letting him walk out without a pat on the back. He’ll be leaving his fingerprints all across campus.

One of the most impactful students of the last four years, Aaron has been an electronic arts major who has forged his own path to success at Linfield. He spent three of his years as an AV Tech, running the sound for numerous comedians, presentations, and movies. Plenty of musicians have gone home happy on Thursday nights because Aaron was there to provide his musical expertise. Events like the recent Battle of the Bands would not have been possible without Aaron. He’s also been the only on-campus DJ for the last few years. All those school dances in FML can be attributed to Aaron’s mixing skills. He worked as a DJ for our own radio and even as their technical director, along with designing tutorials to help the station run effectively.

He’s found time to build the Linfield Review website, which recently came in first for Best Website by the ONPA, and is the online editor. He works on the Linfield College website, helped rebuild the Athletics section and has worked on much of the content we see everyday. Many of the logo’s we see, including the ResLife logo, the Linfield Sustainability logo, and the Computer Science department logo were designed by him. ASLC just hired him to create their logo. He does videos too: The “It’s your Linfield” video contest last year was handily won by Aaron and he helped Wildcat productions produce some of its popular content.

Aaron is an electronic master, spending a year working in the faculty development lab teaching professors how to work all the technology around Linfield. And he works everywhere while working as an RA for two years and building numerous websites privately for his friends and colleagues. “It’s what I do” is all he’ll say about his lifetime love of his projects. It started with his freshman orientation, where he attended Will Keim’s speech. The sound system wasn’t working that day and new freshman Aaron Cody just walked onto the stage and fixed it, then turned to Dan Preston and asked for a job.

Aaron is that guy that gets every call when there’s a problem and he’s the guy who has created many of the iconic images that make Linfield feel like home. And through it all he’s maintained a humility that is unparalled, preferring to be invisible to the public eye. Aaron deserves recognition because he’s the only guy I know that will dislike this article; for Aaron, praise has never been what’s important. He’s just doing what he loves. No student has been more involved in the technical on goings of our campus than Aaron and he’s been irreplaceable at Linfield during his time here.

Aaron will be doing his last cat cab when Jack Ruby Presents performs on May 20th and then he’ll be finishing a four year trek at Linfield. So thank you Aaron Cody. You’ve helped make this campus a better place and you’ve helped numerous students and faculty succeed in building this community. And yet you keep ending up in the back, with almost no recognition. This time I’m making sure you’re standing on center stage.

Matt Olson
Columnist Matt Olson can be reached at [email protected]