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.