My eulogy for Ken Brill
What makes a great man?
St. Albans Episcopal Church Cape Elizabeth, Maine
August 17, 2013
We’re here to honor the life of a good friend and a great man: Ken Brill. In preparing for this event, I contacted many of Ken’s friends and colleagues, all of whom spoke of him with gratitude, love, and admiration.
Ken’s was devoted to truth, which meant he was a real “data guy”. That’s one of the things that drew us together. During the first Internet boom and the California electricity crisis (around 2001), some people with an ax to grind claimed data centers were using lots of electricity (hundreds of watts per square foot). Ken called me one day out of the blue (he had helped one of my students, but we had never met) and said “I think I have some data that might be useful to you.” Those data showed power use that was about one tenth of the conventional wisdom, and they changed the public conversation to better reflect reality.
Ken revered “getting it right”, even when inconvenient or unprofitable. John Stanley (now at Google), who I introduced to Ken and who worked with him for several years, told me about writing projects where the production people were driven crazy by last minute changes, but they were important substantive changes, not arbitrary or trivial ones. He told John and me many times, “if you can’t afford to do it right the first time, how come you can afford to do it twice?”
Ken cared deeply about others doing well, and lived that caring by example. Andrew Fanara, formerly at the EPA, told me that he wouldn’t be where he is today professionally without the doors Ken opened for him. And that feeling was echoed by every single person with whom I spoke. Ken built an industry, in part by encouraging others to achieve their very best. He multiplied his impact by influencing others, which is one mark of a truly great man.
Whenever I spoke with Ken, I felt like he was really listening to me, thinking about what I had said, and addressing my concerns. He was genuinely interested in what others had to say, and was intensely curious about people with different views. This curiosity is rare and special. It’s something with which almost everyone is born, but most people lose it along the way. Ken never did.
I also knew from the conversations we had that he loved his family very much, even though he knew he wasn’t the perfect father or husband (who among us is?). So his caring extended to his entire life.
Ken didn’t dwell much on the past, he focused on creating the future. Christian Belady, who many of you know, talked with Ken about two months ago. In that conversation, Ken spent all his time talking about the future, even though he knew he only had a short time left on the planet. Truly inspirational!
So what makes a great man? Someone who stays true to himself, who faces reality as it is (not as he wishes it would be), who cares about others, who’s devoted to something larger than himself, and who keeps focused more on the future than on the past.
Ken Brill: A good friend and a great man.
We’ll miss you, Ken, but we’ll carry forth your legacy by helping others to do their very best, with our eyes fixed firmly on the future. I know that’s what you would have wanted.
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