Late last night I learned that my dear friend Brian S. Fredrickson passed away.
If you knew Brian, you loved him, and if this is how you are learning that he is no longer with us, let me be the first to say how deeply sorry I am for your loss-for our loss.
Processing this seems impossible, because he couldn’t be gone. Not Brian. His presence is still so… present.
This morning, I went to my closet and pulled out the maroon and gold sweater that Brian bought me when I was new to the Leadership Minor.
He insisted that I needed some U of M gear (I am convinced that his closet was mostly U of M gear), so we walked from Appleby, across the Washington bridge to Coffman Union, where Brian told me to pick whatever I wanted.
In that moment–when I was a struggling single parent and adjunct–the gesture felt so kind and welcoming.
We worked closely together throughout my time in the Minor. One summer, Brian and I re-wrote the 3000-level class and the following fall, we taught it together.
I learned so much from teaching with Brian including how to incorporate (earlier versions of) lots of the teaching tools that I use today.
Brian led and invited so many of us into extra things too-book clubs, discussion groups, conference proposals and more. He was deeply interested and invested in community and treated it as a practice.
Brian was also a rock-solid friend for me when I really needed it. Ten times more put together than I thought I could ever be, he helped me get some important life stuff in order.
I still remember the panicked look on his face when I told him that I didn’t have life insurance (and was a single parent to a toddler)-he immediately emailed a former student who worked for an insurance company and he helped me get what I needed to protect Emma.
Another time, parenting schedules left me on my own for Thanksgiving. Brian invited me to share Thanksgiving with his sweet family–just as he was, they were kind and welcoming and I had a lovely holiday.
Brian was deeply generous and kind and joyful and funny. He was a great colleague and a devoted friend.
This is photo from the time we went to the International Leadership Association Conference in San Diego, and with Cynthia and Todd, visited the San Diego Zoo-this is how I will remember him.
I was lucky to know Brian and the world is a little less bright without him here.
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