In Memoriam

CLASS OF 1996: Freiberg, David Bartol, Matt Douglas, Steve Ott, Matt Aufman, Earl Reed, and Steve Pacchione met on campus in 1992. (Photo: Courtesy of Matt Douglas ’96)

Evan Freiberg was a very lucky man.

Do you know how I know? Because he told me over and over again in the daily phone calls we had in the past two years. He told me that he had such a wonderful life compared to the vast majority of people in the world and far better than so many, many people in our own country.

Evan knew that he was lucky, even as he faced a tremendous battle with leiomyosarcoma, a rare cancer.

Evan died last September—six years to the day after the famous baseball player Yogi Berra died at the age of 90 years old. Yogi was known for his famous sayings and truisms like “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Evan had his own set of sayings and truisms that, while they aren’t as famous as Yogi’s, for those who knew Evan, they were a constant source of inspiration.

“It’s nice to feel important, but more important to be nice,” he would say. Or “It will all work out in the end.” “Trust in your training.” And my favorite: “You must remain positive.”

He often told me that he loved to make complex things simple. It’s an interesting way of looking at things for a guy who went on to earn a PhD from MIT and an MD from Stony Brook University. As a chemist and a radiologist, he was well aware of how life could be complicated. But he lived with a sense of innocent wonder and simplicity—he rarely watched TV (other than sports) and he never wasted time with “The Facebook.”

As a baseball fan, Evan would have been pleased that he and Yogi Berra shared the same date of passing, although he would be the first one to say that he wanted more time. Nobody was more devoted to family and spending time with loved ones—his wife, Felicia, and their children, Leo and Abigail—than Evan.

Evan lived every day of his battle with a positive attitude. He embodied “it ain’t over ‘til it’s over.” One of his last wishes was to gather his friends from Rochester for one last photo. We had to bend hospital rules to make it happen, but Evan was worth it to all of us.

Evan fought and fought and fought with an unbelievable spirit and courageous attitude. I was in awe of him.

—Matt Douglas ’96

Douglas is the founder and CEO of Punchbowl Inc., a technology company that builds online invitations, digital greeting cards, and group videos.