Brian is the second person to the right.
While I was away recuperating, my long-time co-worker and friend Brian passed away during surgery. I received the sad news from our fellow co-worker Troy (he’s the guy on the left in the photo above) while I was headed to the gym. Troy filled me in and said he had been telling Apple people as he ran into them because he wasn’t sure how to get a hold of everybody who knew Brian.
Since the tragedy happened in early October, Brian’s siblings came down from Detroit (his hometown/area) to settle his affairs. Troy is still putting things together to have a memorial service at Apple; Brian had been an employee longer than me and he touched numerous lives in numerous ways, not all of them through his speciality of handling our phone lines and the traffic/routing. Below, are pictures are my contribution for when the service happens.
I mentioned earlier that Detroit was his hometown and obviously he was a huge Red Wings fan, even before they had their string of Stanley Cups starting in the Nineties. The Playmobil skater is a nice reminder and I put 19 on the back to represent his favorite player in our discussions, long-time captain Steve Yzerman. Sure, I could’ve gone with the long-hanging fruit of Gordie Howe (#9) but everybody loves Gordie, including non-Detroit fans. Yzerman was the hero/star player of Brian’s generation which is why he was the better choice.
As for our relationship, it was like many outside my department at Apple, a happy accident. Years ago, when AppleCare had fewer people and buildings, Brian sat near my team. While I was rediscovering hockey thanks to EA’s NHL 2001 on my PS2, I noticed Brian’s hockey paraphernalia around his cube. We struck up conversations and he slowly tutored me on key hockey history: the donut incident, Claude Lemieux’s famous dirty hit, why people throw octopuses on the rink in Detroit, funny encounters with early Dallas fans, etc. Brian and I even went to at least one game together to see the Griffins (Detroit proxy) v. Stars (Dallas proxy). Oh yeah, we also had a polite bet of six packs whenever Philly and Detroit squared off. His vast knowledge motivated me to buy a couple books to get more details. Today, I’m about better than average when it comes to hockey yet I will never been as knowledgable as Brian or my ex-roommate Paul.
Another factor involving Brian’s knowledge was his past. Growing up in Detroit, he took up hockey at a young age which led to playing for Penn State’s team. After college Brian then joined the Peterborough Petes, a very famous junior team in the Canadian OHL, as a forward. He had a couple scars and missing teeth to prove his time. However, a career as a professional player didn’t work out. He was traded to a team in the Quebec league, couldn’t learn French enough and was probably waives, which is the sports term for involuntarily retired.
Before anyone starts playing detective via Google, I’ll stop you right now. As part of the memorial planning, I did some looking and regretfully, Brian doesn’t appear on any rosters for any teams. There are a couple possibilities. He didn’t play long enough to be listed which is a strong possibility; with Penn State he could’ve been a walk-on or they were still a club team then. The other is he exaggerated, I’m not going to use the “L” word since he spoke with such conviction. Either way, it doesn’t matter. Brian was a good friend, a solid co-worker (he helped me a few times), a fantastic sports fan, an interesting storyteller and someone from other side of the political aisle who could be reasoned with, unlike many today. As for his hockey career…in honor of Brian, I will chalk it up as mostly true because he was my friend and it’s how I want to remember him.