evidence: The Tragic Story Of Barack & Michelle Obama's Personal Chef, Tafari Campbell [...] Tafari Campbell was paddleboarding in the Edgartown Great Pond, which is a popular area for paddlesports on the south shore of Martha's Vineyard, when he fell off his board and wasn't able to recover. Campbell's body was recovered in around 8 feet of water about 100 feet from shore. A month after he drowned, his death was officially ruled accidental. He was not wearing a life jacket at the time of the accident. [...] Tafari Campbell was first hired at the White House during the George W. Bush administration, and he was one of just a few chefs kept on for Barack Obama. Among other work in the kitchen, Tafari was a part of Obama's White House home brewing experiment, which produced a White House Honey Brown Ale. According to the Obama White House archives, beer had never before been brewed on the grounds, and one of the ingredients used was honey from the White House gardens.