A personal chef for Barack Obama drowned Sunday in a paddle board accident near the former president’s home in Martha’s Vineyard. The body of Tafari Campbell, 45, was recovered from Edgartown Great Pond near the Obama home on the southern coast of the vacation island by Massachusetts State Police on Monday after a fellow paddleboarder reported he had gone into the water and not resurfaced.
Emergency crews were unable to find him through the evening, though his body was eventually recovered using sonar. Obama and his wife, former first lady Michelle Obama, were not present at the house at the time of the accident. Campbell worked as a sous chef at the White House during the Obama presidency, and was hired when the Obamas departed to join their household staff.
‘He’s been part of our lives ever since, and our hearts are broken that he’s gone’, the Obamas said in a statement. ‘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’. The Obama family purchased the nearly 7,000-square-foot mansion on Martha’s Vineyard in 2021 from Boston Celtics owner Wycliffe Grousbeck. The home abuts the coastal pond, which is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by a narrow barrier beach.
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