I am proud to call Sharon Rosenhause, who retires Thursday after more than 40 years in newspapers, my friend.

I have worked for her and with her for nearly two decades in San Francisco and for the last seven years here at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

She has helped shape the latter part of my career and I am thankful she's been a part of my life and my family. My children call her Aunt Sharon.

Sharon and I have shared meals, basketball and baseball games and a devout love of journalism. We have fallen out but fallen back in over the years. But I always knew that no matter what Sharon Rosenhause, in her frank and straight forward no nonsense approach, cared about diversity and a diverse newsroom.

You see, it is important to have a diverse staff of reporters and editors in a newsroom to bounce things off each other. Sharon understands that everyone brings something to the table, that when two people think alike, one of them is unnecessary, and then, after the discussion, you build consensus.

She's a sister in the struggle. She's a Jewish soul sistah. She's the Queen of Newspaper Diversity. But beyond that she's good people. I will miss her as she enters retirement. None of her friends, myself included, believe she is actually going to sit back and do nothing. That's not her style. Her mind is too sharp.

The best thing I can say about Sharon Rosenhause: She's Old School. She turned me on to Macy Gray. She's the reason I covered City Hall in San Francisco and Mayor Willie L. Brown. She's the reason I came to South Florida to practice journalism. She's the reason I blog. It was encouraged by her. I have been blessed because I just realized that all along I thought I worked for her.

The reality is I am blessed she worked for me. Thank you, Sharon.

You ever have a boss who looked out for you, one who was more than a person who you worked for or with?

Holler back.