Remembering Harvey David Espinoza Rodriguez

Our company suffered a great loss recently. It wasn’t financial, it wasn’t an important customer we’ve been courting for some time, and it wasn’t some strategic marketing failure. It was a personal loss, it was a person loss.

In 2014 Tier Level was the new kid on the block. We had strategies and know-how that were integral to the vitality and success of our friends and customers. We began rolling out marketing and advertising on social media, we were optimizing searches for our customers and people were clamoring for our help and we were excited to jump in. But that required us to expand our then, three person team and bring on more employees to implement our strategy. Our next employees hired were a husband and wife, a friend of course. Because when we start things, we hire our friends because we love them and trust them. The two new additions to the team were Harvey and Michaell (pronounced Michelle). They both jumped in head first and became an integral part of our work.

They started by getting their hands dirty in our customers' LinkedIn profiles and then quickly expanded to every corner of our work. They are loved, and they are appreciated.

Recently Harvey got sick with COVID-19. Our team found out one day on our weekly call.

Team: “Where’s Harvey?”
Michaell: “He’s not feeling well, so he’s taking some time to rest.”
Team: “Do you think it’s COVID?”
Michaell: “That’s what we’re thinking…”

None of us would have thought that that was the beginning of the end. At that point Harvey was just sick with COVID like a slew of other people we knew. But for Harvey, his bout with COVID would be different; it would be more severe. Over the next few weeks the news trickled in slowly and then suddenly. Harvey was declining and we were all worried for him. One day we heard the final news, “Harvey has passed away.”

That was difficult news to hear. Our company lost a beloved employee, a friend. And another employee lost her husband. We are devastated.

Harvey was forty years old when he passed. But the forty years he gave were an exceptional forty years. If you were to ask Michaell, Harvey was an amazing husband. He was gentle, thoughtful, kind, patient and a joy to be around. Harvey was also adventurous and creative. In his family he prioritized experiences. He would take his wife and his two daughters on weekend adventures, traipsing over volcanoes and lodging in mountain bungalows.

Harvey was many things and they are all wonderful; the loss is felt. He was the best of all of us and we miss him dearly.

Harvey is survived by his wife Michaell and two daughters, Daniela Michaell and Fernanda Valentina.