On March 20, Bryan Wright, a great friend of Learning Curves, died suddenly at the age of sixty-five.

Bryan was in charge of advertising for Learning Curves from 2001 to 2010. But he was much more than that. He gave us many ideas for the paper, from topics for articles to layout of the paper. He was well-read, well-educated and curious about everything; he was a real lifelong learner.

Bryan was a truly creative person. He was a musician and had made his living as a folk singer in his youth. While he was working for Learning Curves, he was also composing songs both lyrics and melody with his beloved son, Matthew. He also invented board games and had successfully brought one to market called “Shout it Out”.

Bryan was lots of fun and enjoyed teasing us about our pet peeves and passions. Although he knew better than most of us what a computer can do, he refused to learn how to use one, much to our chagrin and puzzlement. In retrospect, it was an endearing quality; it also meant we had to meet somewhere and go over our current draft every time we brought out a new issue. It was time-consuming and inefficient, but it was fun and we all got to know each other better than we would have if he had used a computer.

Bryan’s influence on the paper was profound. We were extremely fortunate to have his help both in the early days of Learning Curves and later as it became more established.