In Memoriam: Jack Bennett

My dear friend Jack Bennett was killed on the afternoon of June 24 in a boating accident on Stillwater River, just south of Columbus, Montana. He was 31 years old. He died attempting to help others on the river whose raft had become wrapped around a bridge pylon.

Few of the handful who regularly read this blog will have known Jack, nor are many from among his family and friends likely to ever find this post. Instead, I'm throwing these words out into the void of the internet just so that they'll be there, and so that I'll have at least said them. Jack was a kindhearted man with a tremendous sense of humor: a pleasure to shoot the shit with, a capable conversational partner in discussing the heavier aspects of life, and a willing and talented participant in countless gif wars on Facebook. I bonded with him over movies, music, beer, and the joys of the internet. We helped each other through our postbac science marathon, and he was one of the few whose natural grasp of physics (in particular) positively dwarfed my own. He returned the infinite love of his delightful dog with an affection that came as close to a matched level as surely any owner could muster. Though I was just under seven years his junior, he treated me with the respect of a peer in both science and life - an honor, it was clear, that he was much more sure I had earned than I was. I'd always been looking forward to another beer with him, and now it seems there can never be one. I wish I'd gotten to know him further, but I'm very grateful for the time we did spend together. I'll leave this video here for him: a song we'd discussed before as one we both held dear, and one whose bittersweet sentiment seems to perfectly capture both the terrible waste of his death and the celebration of a life that was truly well - if all-too-briefly - lived.

10/27/1981 - 6/24/2012

זכרונו לברכה

May his memory be a blessing