Bob Brier

Bob Brier grew up in Dayton and graduated from Jefferson Elementary where he was a great basketball player. He loved all sports. I remember going to many U of D games with him and watching Carmen Riazzi, or Ray Derringer shoot the ball in from amazing positions.

Onto Colonel White and still better grades-good enough to get him a scholarship to the University of Chicago where he finished not only college but medical school. Next it's out West (where its best) to a internal medicine practice in San Diego. Someone should have explained to him that although Orange County was plenty conservative, it was still part of the Left Coast. This turned out to be a decades long source of humor between us.

Bob married the love of his life Barbara Regan in 1988, and they promptly popped out Sam ( now 14 ) and Tom ( 11). Though Bob couldn't swim well enough to cross a bath tub, Sam is a championship swimmer.

He was nuts about travel and Barb remembers that almost every time a plane flew overhead he wondered where it was headed. He didn't miss out though, as he had traveled plenty in his short life.

We had a lifelong friendship-though a great deal of it was long distance-the miles between San Diego and Portland. I did see him and Sam a time or two when in San Diego for a visit, and though at the time Sam was a very little guy and Bob was still a very tall guy, I recall seeing Bob doing whatever it took to stay at about the same height eye -wise anyhow as his son. The look of affection on Bob's face was something no one could miss.

Bob had the longest friendship of his life with his first cousin Rick Gelman. They were more or less two guys with one thought pattern. They had their own way of communicating, and for the last thirty years or so spoke on the phone enough to keep the AT&T stock in the clouds. You always saw them together. Two real buddies, the kind you're lucky to have one of in your life.

It was Bob's heart that gave out to a virus and he passed away on January 26, l996. While his heart wasn't strong enough to beat the virus, anyone who knew him understood it was large enough and kind enough be as good a friend as there ever was.

I miss all the time our correspondence- with him sending me some goofy article about how awful plaintiff's lawyers were along with the Brier dry commentary. I loved writing him back something designed to send him into malpractice orbit. He was one worthwhile pal.

Respectfully submitted,
Larry Sokol