Brian LaPorte ’80

In eulogies, obituaries, and graveyards, “beloved” is an often-overused adjective, more aspirational than accurate. But in the case of Brian LaPorte, who died March 21, 2019, no word is more apt.

He was born March 15, 1958, in Wakefield, R.I., but his parents soon moved the family to Hawaii, a culture Brian took to thoroughly. Don Ho eating a bowl of poi in flip-flops and lei was no more Hawaiian than Brian. He was like a human version of that great state — warm, sunny, welcoming. He also had a quick wit, an element of which was wonderfully self-mocking. (Another element was mocking everyone else.) 

At Princeton, Brian had trouble adjusting to winter (he wore flip-flops until the first frost) but no trouble making friends.

In fact, though he was a gifted athlete — quarterback for the 150’s football team — and engineer  — he went to Stanford for his master’s — his greatest talent was for people. As a result, he leaves behind not only his wife, Carole; his children, Erin and Danny; his father, Bernard; and his brothers, Michael and Bruce; but innumerable friends, on and off the mainland, who recall his heart-lifting smile and grieve at this loss.