Andy Bell on his brother

Feb 6, 2000

My brother Sam was the youngest in our family; he was 34 when he passed away. He was a gifted software engineer, but he was much more than that. He was an author, an artist, a cabinet maker, and a voracious reader. He could juggle flaming torches, he took yoga classes, and he learned to speak Japanese. He was somewhat shy, but he had a razor-sharp sense of humor. He found the perfect girl, her name is Zoë. They bought their dream home in San José a year ago, and they got married just five months ago.

On Thursday 1/20/00 he was fighting off the flu, and Zoë noticed he was unusually groggy. She couldn't get him up and dressed by herself. An ambulance took him to the hospital. At first the doctors told Zoë that Sam had diabetes, and would have to adjust his diet and maybe go on insulin. But within hours, the news got much worse. He had a raging fever, and was not responding to treatment. A few hours later Sam was gone.

Sam was raised in Holliston, Massachusetts, about an hour outside of Boston. I still live in Holliston; my parents have retired to Maine. My older brother Mark lives on the south shore of Boston, and our sister Cathy lives in Virginia. None of us know much about FRP, character writeups, etc. But when Mark and I went to CA immediately after Sam died, we spent lots of time with Sam's closest friends. They were kind enough to explain a lot to us outsiders. We knew something about it, what struck us was the sheer volume. Notebook after notebook of his color drawings -- thousands of them.

Andy Bell, andy238@earthlink.net

Examples of Sam's superhero notebook drawings

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Sorry about this GeoGuide, but it comes with the web space. It was either this, or a popup window. George Ruban.