Remembering Bryan Mundy

Eulogy Delivered by Ed Trimble


All Saints Episcopal Church


Atlanta, Georgia, USA


January 24, 2001

During the past four years, I had the gift of Bryan Mundy in my life. I was both his business partner and his friend. We developed an intimate bond that involved complete and total trust. We watched and studied one another. We learned from one another. We often communicated without words. We knew exactly how best to support each other. I watched his back and he watched mine. Bryan and I were partners in the truest sense of the word.

Even to those of us who knew him best, Bryan was oftentimes larger than life. He was filled with an incredible passion, a boundless optimism and sense of purpose. Bryan would never be denied. I never saw him consider giving up or giving in. His unspoken message to all those who followed him was "Climb on my back. I'm strong." And let me tell you, Bryan was strong in many ways. I used to laugh when he'd talk about his brother, Michael, and his nephew, Kalen. He'd say, "Ed, Kalen has this freaky strength, just like his Dad."

It must run in the family, because Bryan Mundy had freaky strength. He had this incredible mental, physical, and spiritual strength about him. He could work all day and all night and then all day again. He was known to be on the phone with a board member at 10 at night and then on the phone with our European office at 3 am after a couple of hours of sleep.

Bryan's personal statement on his badge at work was, "The more you do, the more you are." And he lived by this creed.

You could gage his physical strength just by looking at him — those broad shoulders and thick forearms. He played football and ran track in high school and later ran track at Lehigh University where he still holds a school record. He was training for the Olympic trials in the 800 meters in the early 90's before an injury ended that dream.

I only went running with Bryan once, …and that was enough! It was on Miami Beach in late 1998. We'd jogged a couple of miles and I'd caught my second wind and was feeling pretty good. I though, "OK. Let's see this world class speed I've been hearing about." I broke into a sprint and shouted over my shoulder, "Try and keep up Mundy." Suddenly it was like I was stuck in 2nd gear and Bryan was in 5th. He just blew past me. I never ran with him again.

There are a lot of stories about Bryan's physical and mental strength. Bryan's father told me so many great stories yesterday, but my favorite was about the time Bryan was going from Delaware to visit his parents in Sea Isle, NJ. Bryan took the ferry over to Cape May. "Do you want me to come pick you up at the ferry dock?", his Dad asked. It was almost 40 miles from Sea Isle. "No, I'll get there by myself", replied Bryan, "I'll see you in a little while." Two hours went by, three hours went by. Bryan's parents started getting worried. They were about to call the police when a neighbor stopped by. "You're not going to believe this," the neighbor said, "there's some crazy guy roller-blading right over the bridge on Highway 9." Mr. Mundy knew it was Bryan. A few minutes later Bryan shows up at the door completely exhausted and complaining about a wrong turn he'd made. He'd just roller-bladed 40 miles from the ferry dock to Sea Isle. Mr. Mundy said he took off his roller-blades, went to bed for two days, and never touched those roller-blades again.

You can't talk about Bryan's physical and mental strength without talking about mountain climbing. He was climbing the tallest mountain on each of the seven continents and was planning a trip to Antarctica for this year. Last January he climbed Mt. Aconcagua in Argentina, the tallest mountain in South America at 23,000 feet. Bryan didn't train at all before the trip — he was too busy working. He showed up for the climb out of shape and lagged behind his climbing team the first two days. He said they wanted to send him home, but he talked them out of it. On the third afternoon, when the rest of his team rested, Bryan forced himself to climb by himself up and back to get in shape. By the 5th day Bryan was leading his climbing team up the mountain. On summit day, the weather was terrible. Over 200 people were trying to make it to the top. Bryan's team fell behind. He forged ahead and was the very first to reach the top of the mountain. No one else from Bryan's team made the summit. Out of 200 people, only 5 reached the top that day. Physical and mental strength — two of Bryan's many gifts from God.

Climbing was a very spiritual experience for Bryan. He told me that he climbed to be closer to God. He always talked to God and asked for guidance when he was on top of the mountain.

We can't pay due respects to Bryan without talking about his quick wit and his silver tongue. A friend once said, "Bryan's the only person I know who could talk a dog off a meat truck". His business school friends used to tease him that he was spreading Mundy Sauce with his gift of speech. I picked up on that and always joked with him after a big meeting where he'd sold a project or a partnership that there was Mundy Sauce all over the floor.

He was a brilliant communicator, an inspirational speaker. Bryan always had the right analogy, the right personal story, the unique insight for every situation. Bryan was never once at a loss for words. And all of us loved him for it.

Bryan had many passions in life. His first was his family, his mother, his father, his brother Paul, and his sister Donna. He loved them dearly and spoke of them often. His brother, Michael, was his best friend. He loved all kids — my son Will and especially his nieces and nephew. He loved dogs. He loved golf, playing it and watching it. Out on the golf course with Bryan, based on the wind speed, the elevation, the height of the grass, the type of spikes on your shoes, and the phase of the moon, he would tell you exactly what club to use. (Everyone knows what I'm talking about.) He loved a thick juicy steak. He loved his '94 Toyota 4Runner. He loved the beach in Delaware. And he loved our company EzGov. It was his child. The people were his family.

Bryan was a big idea kind of guy. He read Plato and Einstein. He was fascinated by the recent advances in medical science and loved to talk about the human genome project. When a friend asked him one time, "Do you believe there's other life in the universe?" Bryan replied, "It's mathematically impossible for there not to be other life in the universe." Bryan was a big idea kind of guy. And EzGov was a big idea.

EzGov was founded on Bryan's vision of "simplified government for anyone from anywhere at anytime." This vision is etched in the glass of our boardroom at the office. The company is 150-people strong today, and will remain a living memorial to its Chairman. I could tell you stories for hours about his work accomplishments that you would not believe.

Bryan's friend Parker Carroll gave an incredible tribute to Bryan in Philadelphia on Saturday. He told a story from several years ago about Bryan driving all night to Canada for a sales meeting after his flight had been cancelled due to bad weather. Bryan closed the deal that day. As I was listening to this story, I almost couldn't believe it. Just last winter, Bryan had plans to fly up and meet with a group of Republican governors who were gathered in New York. There was a terrible snowstorm up and down the East coast. All the flights were cancelled. Bryan got into his car in Atlanta and drove 16 hours that night to make the meeting the next morning. Very few people made the meeting and all the governors were amazed at this crazy kid who'd driven all the way up from Atlanta just to see them. He did it for EzGov.

In 1999 Bryan and I sat down with our advisor Chuck Dolan and drafted a list of our dream Board for the company. We came up with 6 names: former US Congressman and Presidential candidate, Jack Kemp; former US Congressman, Bill Gray; former Chairman of MSA and Dun & Bradstreet Software, John Imlay; former Georgia Governor and now US Senator, Zell Miller; Harvard Kennedy school professor and former technology policy advisor to VP Al Gore, Dr. Elaine Kamarck; and former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo. Bryan's job was to go out and try to recruit these 6 people. Even knowing Bryan's gifts and his incredible determination, I thought we'd be lucky to get one, possibly two of these people. Within four weeks, Bryan had signed-on all six. As always, he gave the credit away, he'd say, "It was the idea, the vision of e-Government." Yes, but it was Bryan's vision backed by this sincerity and charm. They put their trust in a young man who wanted to change the world and who was filled with incredible passion.

Bryan didn't just want to change the world. He expected to change the world. He once asked a new employee at EzGov on the elevator, "So how does it feel to be changing the world?" She looked into his eyes, unsure if he was joking with her, and realized that he was dead serious. She broke into a big smile and said, "It rocks!!"

After the tragedy, I felt so sad that Bryan wasn't going to have more time to change the world. The sky was the limit for this guy. From time to time we would talk about what we wanted to do and who we wanted to be as we grew older. We talked about applying our time and energy to helping the less privileged, to improve education in our state and country. Bryan had a dream of starting a mountain climbing program for inner city kids. He wanted to lead those kids to the top of a mountain and say, "Look what you've done today. If you can climb this mountain you can do anything. Get an education. No one can ever take that away from you."

He practised a very special, almost spiritual, form of humility and generosity. At restaurants, he would seek out the worst seat at the table. On Thanksgiving Day last year, I learned that he spent the day at the stadium unloading food trucks for the Hosea Williams event. I asked him, "Didn't you want to serve people in line?" His response, " I unloaded trucks because I knew nobody else wanted to."

Bryan wanted to make money so that he could give it all away. He took care of his friends and family. Our first Christmas at EzGov he gave each of the founding team a nice personal note with a $50 bill inside. Back then he didn't have that kind of money to give away. I told him thanks for the note, but I didn't want the money. He wouldn't take the $50 back.

Bryan had recently been attending a church in Atlanta by himself. He and I had a brief conversation about it several weeks back. I wish I could remember all the details. I do remember him saying, "Ed, I'm good with God". This should give all of us great comfort.

The quality that I admired most in Bryan was that he had a profound respect for all people — men/women; people of different races, cultures, religions; people with different opinions. His heart was as big as an ocean. He found the good in every person he ever knew. During the early days of EzGov, when we were working night and day for the company, he'd ask me at least once a week how my wife, Melissa, was doing. He'd always say, "I want things to be good between you and Melissa. Let me know if I can do more." He was just always caring for others.

If the success of a person's life is measured by their impact on others, Bryan, even though he died so young, had a very full and successful life. I learned so much from him. All of us are better people for knowing him. All of us will carry Bryan forward with us throughout our lives.

Mark Lewyn, a close friend of Bryan's, shared with me a poem by James Whitcomb Riley that I believe gives all of us a beautiful way of thinking of the loss of Bryan. The poem reads:

I cannot say, and I will not say that he is dead.
He is just away —
With a cheery smile, and a wave of his hand,
He wandered into an unknown land.
Think of him as the same, I say.
He is not dead — he is just away.

Let's also remember Erin Johansen and her family today. She and Bryan had grown incredibly close in the short time that they'd known each other. She was just as precious to those people in her life as Bryan was to all of us. Let's keep her family in our prayers. Giving this tribute today is an honor that I'll treasure forever. In closing, I'd like for you to hear Bryan's words. As I said at the start of this tribute, we developed an intimate bond and often communicated without words. I think I know what he would tell us today. He would say:

"Ed, tell 'em all that I love 'em. Tell 'em to grieve for me, but not for too long. There's too much to be done. Tell 'em I'm on the top of world's highest mountain where I've always dreamed of being. Tell 'em I'm completely at peace and I have no regrets. I had a great life. And Ed, please, please, tell 'em to be strong and to take care of each other."