My friend Todd composed and recorded this beautiful musical tribute to Kevin. You can listen as you read the thoughts I shared at his funeral.

A Memory of Kevin

Don’t ask me why, but when I think of Kevin, the memories that come to me are often the silly ones. Like trying to decipher the difference between strange and weird (I think I was always the weird one). Or shipoopy. Or the much-feared but little understood ‘nose-eating tree.’ Or my favorite – something I still repeat to this day – whenever someone says ‘So?’, responding with a tirade of various types of fasteners. Allow me to demonstrate:

‘So?’

‘Sew buttons on your underwear. You can’t glue them on. You could use Velcro, but that would itch. You could use snaps, but that would be cold in the winter.’

Kevin never had to work hard to be funny or silly. And he never had to work hard to be a caring friend, a gracious host, or just a downright interesting person. He just WAS all of these things.

It was always a treat to be around him – whether we were seeing George Clinton at the Maritime Hall, discovering another great restaurant at Jack London Square, or simply goofing around at our 10-year high school reunion.

So, I think back to the end of our first year in college. There we were in the last day of our Introduction to Engineering class. By that time, we had both decided that music – not engineering – was our true calling. So, of course, the only proper thing for us to do at that point was to launch into a spirited, but quiet, a capella rendition of Stars & Stripes Forever. Later, when – like 75% of our classmates, we got our big fat Fs, I realized that we had a lot more fun getting that F than anyone else in the class.

And I realized that Kevin taught me it’s okay to be myself – and it’s a helluva lot more fun than the alternatives.

Thank you Kevin.