July 1, 2011

Last weekend family, friends, and colleagues of Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker (who died suddenly in March, just days after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer) gathered in his home town of Eugene, Oregon, to pay tribute to a man revered as much for his bold, iconic portraits and photojournalism as for his innumerable acts of selfless generosity.

Last Saturday, friends shared their favorite Brian stories over a buffet lunch at La Perla, one of the photographer's favorite restaurants. On Sunday, hundreds flocked to the McDonald Theatre to celebrate his life in photographs, word, song, video tributes, and poetry.

Wrote his dear friend, Maya Angelou: "When great souls die...Our eyes, briefly,/see with a hurtful clarity./[Then,] after a period peace blooms,/slowly and always irregularly./Spaces fill with a kind of soothing electric vibration./Our senses, restored, never/to be the same, whisper to us/They existed. They existed./We can be. Be and be/Better. For they existed."

We can be better because of the lessons we've learned through Brian's examples: the countless kindnesses of this gracious, giving giant we were blessed to have had move among us.