Brian was born March 16th 1983 in Madison, Wisconsin. He lived most of his life in DeForest, Wisconsin but attended school in Waunakee and graduated from Waunakee High School in 2001. Growing up he loved to play sports; he played soccer from the age of 5 through high school, baseball from the age of 5 through middle school, football during middle school, and softball for several years and teams after high school. He was a great brother, son, uncle, and friend.
Growing up Brian was a movie buff; enjoying Western, Historical, and Fantasy Adventure movies. After the cartoon phase; his favorite show during his childhood without a doubt was MacGyver and walking around the house you would have the chance of walking into one of his traps (which were harmless but very creative) that he came up with after watching an episode. He loved his playtime like any other active kid riding his bike, playing sports, playing tag, playing pretend. He smiled as much as any happy child you know of, and those smiles were characterized by his big dimples (which showed as an adult as well). You could always find plenty of these smiles on any of the several family vacations taken throughout the years, these trips were some of his best memories as well.
Brian had a great quality of loyalty to any of his friends or family members, no matter how tough things got, he always tried to come through for you and did what he could to keep you from worrying about him during his tough times. He loved children as well, having 5 nephews and 1 niece he always made sure to give them a hug and tell them he loved them whenever he saw them (even in his darkest hours). An example of his loyalty was prior to braking his shoulder a couple years ago he had a trip planned to go visit his best friend in San Francisco. He didn’t think twice, he kept his plans for this trip and with his arm in a sling made out for San Francisco. His friend informed us that you could tell he was in pain during this trip, but friendship meant a lot more to Brian than being in pain.Another example of Brian putting the ones he loved first is when we (our dad, the brothers, an uncle, and my older brother’s father-in-law) went on an elk hunting trip to Colorado. A couple days into this trip Brian became sick and we came to find out that he was severely dehydrated with elevation sickness. We ended up having to take him into the local hospital, where they put him on an IV and monitored his health. He wanted to be taken out of the hospital and rejoin us back at camp. The doctors said that he wouldn’t start getting better until he was at a lower elevation. My older brother offered to drive him home days before the trip was to end, which took a lot of persuasion and basically having to force Brian to go home with him. Brian didn’t want to ruin anyone’s trip, he would’ve preferred to sit at the cabin and suffer until the trip was over. That’s just the kind of guy he was and we loved him for it.
After high school, Brian worked for RB Remodeling and Waunakee Remodeling. He enjoyed building and remodeling any part of a house, and had a real talent for doing this. In 2012 Brian decided to try and make a go of running his own remodeling business; he spent months coming up with a business plan, came up with a logo and design for advertising, bought any major tools that he didn’t already have, and bought a decent truck, work trailer, and ladder rack. He performed work as long as he could until the depression made it so he could barely leave the house, and had plenty of customers wanting him to do work on their house because they knew his quality of workmanship.
His main passion in life, which followed all him from childhood to the end of his life was spending time outdoors. He enjoyed it more when his family was with, but that definitely didn’t determine whether he was going to make a trip hunting, fishing, scouting deer, or camping. Moments he spent in the outdoors included deer hunting our land in Crawford County and leased land in Sauk County, waterfowl hunting the Cherokee Marsh, pheasant hunting the Mazomanie Marsh, and fishing the Wisconsin River and lakes in Dane, Columbia, and Sauk Counties. He hunted deer (Bow & Gun), waterfowl, pheasant, squirrels, and turkey. There was no shortage of top-of-the-line hunting gear for any of these hunting seasons either, he always wanted to have the right equipment (camouflage pants/coats/boats/hats/gloves/face paint, duck & goose calls, turkey calls, cover-up scents, deer stands & blinds, bow accessories, and multiple guns for each sport). He always shot a regular compound bow, but after he broke his shoulder playing softball a couple years ago he applied and bought a crossbow. Brian loved to go out in the woods to spend time scouting for deer sign, taking photos and video, and enjoying the quiet beauty that nature had to offer.
Brian was always surprising us with hunting/fishing equipment that he purchased to help him become a more thorough hunter and outdoorsman. This was the type of thoroughness Brian put into his remodeling skills, sometimes taking a little longer than some people to complete a project, but it was his way. He wanted his work to be something the customer and himself could always be proud of. Brian had a loyalty to his customers, feeling that they all deserved to get the best he could possibly give them.
However, Brian had a disease (chemical imbalance) that many people have, but not much is talked about publicly or available for helping someone with depression. Brian fought with depression for well over a decade, and in the past couple years had gotten worse with the medication, which changed over time with increasing dosages, not working anymore. There was no way for us to truly understand the emotions and feelings he was going through. When asked if the feelings were comparable to missing a trophy buck, he replied saying that “it is so much worse than that it can’t be put into words” and that “we can’t imagine how horrible the feeling is”. He had grown tired of the doctors not helping and there not being any easily accessible help out there. In the end it became too much for him and he took his own life.Throughout the years Brian would seem to have a different perspective and have a different personality when he was outdoors. He wouldn’t say much of anything when he was at the house, but when we were hunting, camping, or fishing together you could get him to open up and share some of his thoughts. We think is was the serenity of the outdoors that maybe relaxed him and let him enjoy life for a little while. The hunting seasons and camping trips over the years were always something that you could tell he would be looking forward to participating in.One time when Brian was 25, he took off a week of work to go stay at our hunting shack down in Crawford County. There was no running water, but he had electricity and his new chocolate lab puppy to keep him company. His week was spent building a small dam, in one of our ravines, to establish a small pond for the wildlife. He had to haul rocks, dirt, and discarded steel beams down into the ravine to create a dam that would last. The dam is still there today. During this week he also combed the woods to figure out the deer trails, bedding/feeding areas, and put all of this information down on a map he had made of the property.Brian had a favorite hunting dog, named Pepper (Black Lab), that was a great waterfowl and pheasant hunter. Pepper had a special place in Brian’s heart, and would usually get the privilege of coming into the house and sleeping in Brian’s bed because she was such a good dog (even on old legs she was able to flush out pheasants as good as any dog we’ve ever hunted with). During this time Brian spent a lot of time in the field with his dog and spent a lot of time fine-tuning his duck and goose calling skills. Needless to say he took it pretty hard when she had to be put down due to old age. When I would go waterfowl hunting with him I wouldn’t even pull out my duck calls because I didn’t want to scare away any birds that he was bringing in with his calling. Our dad is now able to let the rest of us know that he always thought Brian was the best waterfowl hunter and wing shot in the family.
At the wake/funeral the tables were covered with camouflage sheets, with his bow, camera, calls, and hunting clothes on display. Brian wore a camouflage dress shirt with a tin of Copenhagen in the pocket. The brothers, dad and pall bearers wore camouflage ties, while the sisters, mom, and other family members wore camouflage ribbons. We requested/ordered a coffin that had a real cabin look and feel to it, something he would've have chosen himself. We all agreed that Brian would've approved of his funeral. We miss Brian severely every single day that he isn’t here, as a piece of our hearts is gone but never forgotten, hoping that time will help to ease the pain. For now, all we can do is try to prevent this tragedy from happening to another family and look forward to seeing him again someday.
