Significant professional accomplishment: Co-founding and leading Sad Dads Club Inc. with my best friends and fellow loss dads in memory of our daughters — Bella, Lila and Izzy.
From the ashes of despair, Rob Reider, Chris Piasecki and I birthed a global community of bereaved fathers with thousands of active members from Portland to Paris and Auckland to Vancouver. Through daily Instagram posts, weekly meetings and events, biannual retreats (in Maine, of course!) and access to life-saving professional mental health support, we’re creating a safe and supportive space for fathers to grieve and grow together.
Current state of mind: Forward! Always.
Audacious goal: To provide every grieving parent with a supportive community and access to quality professional mental health care so that no one has to navigate life after loss alone.
We may fall short, but we’ll never stop trying, and in doing so, I hope to make Bella, Elly and our amazing living children proud.
Favorite quote: “It is not the critic who counts … The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena … who strives valiantly; who errs … who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly.” — Theodore Roosevelt, “Citizenship in a Republic” speech in Paris, France, on April 23, 1910.
Influential book: Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” is often hailed as one of the great American war novels and it is. But ultimately, it’s had a profound impact on me because it’s a story about the human spirit and all we can endure under the most extraordinary circumstances.
Favorite movie, podcast or TV show: I love almost anything about politics and entrepreneurship. Sorkin’s “The West Wing” is at the top in terms of shows, and NPR’s “How I Built This,” especially the early seasons, is such a fun and fascinating podcast.
Best way to recharge: Exploring Maine’s islands and rocky coast with my family … ideally on someone else’s boat so I can actually relax!
At age 60: I see myself surrounded by family and serving the great state of Maine as best I can.
