In Memoriam: Remembering Richard Brasington Jr., MD, FACP, MACR

Family & Fishing

Kathleen Ferrell was married to Rick Brasington for 25 years. But it was a friendship that started it all. “I am a physical therapist, and I had a grant from the Missouri Department of Public Health; Rick’s office was just across the hall. We had a dear friendship for nine months and got the privilege and pleasure of being together for the next 25 years. Just before he passed away, he told me that we were the perfect life partners.

“I admired that whatever Rick did, he did with vigor—there was no halfway. Teaching was instinctive for him. I could ask him a question about something, and he would quickly drop into teaching mode. As Rick grew older, he saw teaching as his legacy—the ability to share his experience. He wanted his fellows to be the best, and he was great at seeing the potential in people and extracting it.

“He could sometimes seem like an absent-minded professor. One evening at a dinner, a woman looked at him and said, ‘Are you an absent-minded professor or do you just look like one?’

“Rick was a genuinely good person who was wonderful with our kids and grandkids. He later developed an interest in fly fishing; it became such a passion that we bought a home near a stream in the Ozarks so he could just step outside the back door and go fishing. I think it brought him peace.”

Elizabeth Hofheinz, MPH, MEd, is a freelance medical editor and writer based in the greater New Orleans area.