Remembering Gary Colletti

BRI Staff share their memories of Gary Colletti, cherished friend and colleague, who passed away on November 5, 2021.

In Memory of Gary Colletti 1975-2021 : https://billofrightsinstitute.org/in-memory-of-gary-colletti

Visit our episode page for additional resources:
https://billofrightsinstitute.org/podcasts/remembering-gary-colletti

Transcript

 Haley (00:00)
It's been almost two months since Gary passed away, but his memory is still very much alive and all of us here at BRI. For those who aren't familiar with my voice from past podcast episodes, my name is Haley Watson and I'm producer and content manager. I started at BRI about two years ago, and during my first week at the organization, Gary brought me into a project to help start a company podcast that became Fabric of History. I was struck by how much confidence he had in me a new employee who hadn't had a chance to prove herself yet, and how genuinely interested and excited he was about my ideas. It's really true that Gary was exceptionally sensitive to the ideas and thoughts of others. He loved discussion and working together, and he made working on the podcast a positive and joyful experience, full of lively and hilarious conversations that I'll never forget. We worked together on many other projects, including our AP Prep webinars, and I remember being struck by his thoughtfulness one night around 07:00 p.m. When I was running a live stream session and he messaged me to ask my thoughts on how it was going even though he didn't have to be working.
 
Haley (01:15)
I jokingly told him to stop working, but he reassured me that he could multitask and watch the webinar while he was also making spaghetti bolognese. Besides being a wonderful coworker, Gary was a truly special human being, and I will miss him. What follows are other BRI staff members sharing their personal memories of Gary. You'll now hear from David Bob, President of the Bill of Rights Institute.
 
David (01:41)
Gary Colletti was a student of philosophy, and all of his work in civics and history revealed his great love of philosophy. It's hard to state how rare that is someone who approaches history and civics without a political agenda, and one that is premised on the idea that we human beings are capable of seeking and finding truth. What's more, Gary had a confidence that young people are capable of thinking philosophically, of reasoning, of working through the challenging issues of our day. He asked much of young citizens because he knew that they are capable of much. That's one of the legacies of Gary's work at BRI. We take young people's voice, agency, and contribution to our nation seriously because we know how capable they are of reason of action. When given the opportunity to reason and act together. In a politicized era, Gary's Liberal and humane approach to civics and history was exactly what we needed. I miss Gary every day. I miss that human being. I miss that colleague. I miss that deep, thinking person. Gary said on Fabric of History that he always wanted to ask big questions, and that's one of the things that I miss most about Gary.
 
David (03:09)
He had a gentle, careful way of asking those big questions. He could do it in philosophy, but he could also do it in policy and in strategy. A few months ago, he led, in fact, a strategy session that involved a number of different organizations and he did it with such grace and ease. He kept pointing us back to the big picture, to the thing that we were there to actually do. Don't get lost in the details. He wanted to point us back to the purpose of our effort and to the cause really that United that group effort. Whenever I saw Gary in action and I would have loved to have seen him even more in the classroom. But whenever I saw him in front of teachers, students, or just interacting with us as his colleagues at the Bill of Rights Institute, I always saw someone who challenged us to think better, to think more critically and more deeply. We hope to live up to that fine example that he set for all of us who had the pleasure of knowing Gary Colletti.
 
Kelly (04:19)
Alright, this is Kelly, Associate for Educator Engagement here at the Bill of Rights Institute. I worked with Gary for about two years and one of the first things I noticed was that Gary was a very busy man. He always seemed to be go, but he always made time for people and tasks that needed to be done. No matter how much he had to do, he could always find time for a conversation. We both watched the Loki series on Disney Plus which was released this past summer and even though he was quite busy with both ConAcad and Summer Institute, he always found a few minutes at some point each week to talk about the most recent Loki episode. I like the Marvel universe, but I'm a very casual fan and usually don't know the significance of events or what order they happen in. But Gary always took the time to explain whatever was going on and why it was significant to that Loki episode. He had a way of explaining things that felt very genuine and never made anyone feel dumb. Gary would ask me, do you remember when this scene happened in this movie?
 
Kelly (05:19)
And nine times out of ten, I'd have no idea what he was talking about, but he'd always say that's okay, and then do a quick recap of that scene to then catch me up to whatever else I needed to know about why that scene was significant to the Loki episode or why certain characters ended up in situations. I remember once during an all staff meeting, he asked a question about something that I knew he knew the answer to. So after the meeting, I asked him why he would ask a question he already knows the answer to and he said, When I was a teacher, I learned that there's often someone who's afraid to speak up and ask a question. So instead of hoping that this person had the courage to ask in front of the entire staff in the meeting, I did it for them so that they'd understand what was being discussed. He could have easily have just not said anything and caught them up later. But he always thought of others and wanted to make sure that everyone was on the same page as a team. Actually, one of the last things he helped me do was a very last-minute thing that he made time for even when he didn't have to.
 
Kelly (06:16)
I asked someone to do the Reintroducing Me segment for the newsletter and they hadn't gotten back to me and it was getting pretty close to the deadline. Gary was one of the last people on E team who needed to do the segment, and he, I believe, was the only one on that list in the office that day. So I walked into his office and I said, how busy are you in the next 48 hours workwise? He looked at me and he said, Pretty busy. Why? And I said, oh if you're busy, don't worry about it. It's not a big deal. But he insisted that I explained what I was asking for and I said, oh, it's just the Reintroducing Me segments. Like it's not a big deal. If we don't have somebody from E team this newsletter, don't worry about it. So he asked when the deadline was and I told him that it was less than 48 hours away and he said, don't worry, you'll get it by then. Sure enough, less than 2 hours later, he had sent me the answers to Reintroducing Me and the pictures to include. I was shocked at not only how fast he did it, but how he found the time to do it.
 
Kelly (07:15)
Even though he told me he was quite busy over the next couple of days, Gary was a prime example of what it means to be a good person, generous, approachable, fun, thoughtful, and a team player. As he often said, Go team. He will be very missed.
 
Kevin (07:34)
This is Kevin Hart, Communications director with the Bill of Rights Institute. They say that the really best teachers aren't made. They're born. Some people are just born to teach. And that was just always the way that I felt about Gary. You could see the way that he commanded a room, just the energy, the humor, the empathy. He just had this perfect combination of everything that makes a great teacher. And whether he was teaching students or whether he was helping with professional development with his fellow educators, this was just a man who was born to teach. What was really interesting to us and really eye-opening to us is obviously we all saw the impact that Gary had on our lives. But after the news had emerged that he had passed, we were just flooded with emails from all over the country, from teachers and former students whose lives he had touched. We got emails from a student who he helped comfort on 9/11 when he was teaching in New York City a former student who went on to become a comedian and a comedy writer. And that's a hard thing to do, to stand in front of a room and try to make people laugh or write something and hope people find it funny.
 
Kevin (09:05)
But he actually said it was Gary who gave him the courage to pursue that and really encouraged him. Everything we know about Gary, everything we saw ourselves, is that he had a life of just immeasurable impact, and we were all just so thankful to know him.
 
Stan (09:26)
I'm Stan Swim. I'm BRI's chief program officer. I've been here at the Institute for a little over three years, and Gary was the first person that I had the opportunity to hire and add to the team. As I took over that role, he made an impression right out of the gate. It was clear from the beginning that he was an exceptional teacher for that particular role at BRI, we always require a teaching demo, anyone who's going to be put in front of teachers at any point. We won't do that unless we've seen them teach. Gary's demo was unforgettable. We're a history and civics organization, and he came in here to teach us about hamburgers, and Gary figured out how to help us learn a lot about what really was a hamburger. And you could just see his love for content generally, but for the teaching process, he just really brought a zest for that. That was remarkable. And that proved out after he joined the team. You could always see that he knew his content, but he never quit learning. He always realized there was more that he could know and that never stopped with Gary.
 
Stan (10:41)
He thought deeply, not just about the content itself, but then also he took the next step of thinking really carefully about how to teach it most effectively, how to make it relevant to each of the students that he was trying to reach or each of the colleagues here at BRI that he was trying to reach. He asked trenchant, penetrating questions, the kinds of questions that would bring you up short and make you wonder if you actually did understand what you thought you'd always understood about something. And then after he asked those great questions, he had the patience to listen, and he listened carefully enough and with enough memory that he always had great follow-up questions after you finished. So he was an excellent teacher. Again, that was obvious out of the gate when we interviewed him. What was not obvious right out of the gate, but became very obvious over time, was that he was also an excellent leader. At BRI, we valued Gary's teaching skills and his understanding of program design, how to help teachers and students have a wonderful experience with our material, how to get them excited about the content we were presenting, how to help them think more critically and carefully about history and government and civics.
 
Stan (11:57)
So he was excellent in his core expertise in that position. But he added to that as a leader and as a member of my leadership team within the program staff. He helped me lead 2 18 month improvement cycles that touched every part of our work. He helped teach the entire leadership team processes of analysis, taking apart different aspects of our work, how to identify and get problems all the way down to the root causes, pull those things apart, and then make the kinds of steps and changes that cause so much improvement in the team. Over that time, he was a great facilitator. Each time we did one of these cycles, we always had discussions as a team. We tried to make those very collaborative to really draw on all the knowledge that is dispersed across the team. As people try each day to do their best job in their role, they pick up all kinds of knowledge. Gary knew how to get every last ounce of that out of people and turn it into useful things that were in our programs and became part of how our team conducts our daily activities. Gary really was an exceptional teacher and an excellent leader, and we're all going to miss him.
 
Stan (13:19)
I miss him particularly. I knew that on the other side of my office wall was a person who never stopped thinking about how to do it better and how to help other people do that themselves, to help them be part of that improvement, to own it, and to get the satisfaction that comes with having worked hard on an important job. Gary, we think the world of you and will very much miss you.
 
Haley (13:51)
You'll now hear from Scott Knowles, senior manager of financial planning and analysis.
 
Scott (13:57)
I remember bumping into Gary Colletti in the hallway one day in the office where I saw him holding a bright red tea kettle, and I asked him if he was making tea, and he told me how much he loved tea. And I followed him back to his office so he could tell me more about a tea subscription that he had signed up for, which was supplying him with more tea than he knew what to do with. So I stood there and we talked about drinks for a little while, and then he told me that in the future he let me know when he was making some so we could sit and have some tea together. And he gave me a pack of leftover tea he had. I think it was lemon drop tea, and we smiled and went on our way. Gary was an incredible person. He always brightened the office with his presence, and he will be forever missed.
 
Rachel (15:06)
Well, Hi. I'm Rachel Davison Humphries. I am director of outreach at the Bill of Rights Institute, and I have been working at BRI as long as Gary has because I was in the team that helped hire him. And so he and I have worked really closely together for all of our time together at BRI. I think one of the things that struck us about Gary very early on was just how intensely intelligent he was and how thoughtful. And I know that many people knew that about him. You can't study philosophy and come away something other than a thoughtful person, but he really internalized that dialectic. And one of our very early conversations was about Socratic dialogue and the importance of the question. And so there are often times in meetings where we'd throw in a little something, and both of us would kind of look at each other and know that we were talking about something that had to do with philosophy. We have this really fun connection around philosophy and philosophical ideas. But more than that, the thing that always struck me I found Gary was the care with which he approached his relationships. I would say there is not a person I have worked with who took more care in his relationships.
 
Rachel (16:34)
And we saw that when all of the testimonials and stories were coming in after his passing of just how many people's lives were touched by the work he did because he really deeply cared, and he deeply cared about the ideas that he was supporting, and he deeply cared about the people who were engaging with those ideas. And that came through again and again and again. And so as I think about him not being with us anymore, I think about how much we've all lost in terms of a creative partner, a truly creative person who was committed to the work he was doing and committed to building up those around him in ways that you don't see very often. I have this little card that I printed out, and it's a pair of hands holding up a Mandala. Again, Gary loved kind of complexity and systems, and it says Be like Gary, kind, thoughtful, and curious. So that's my closing thought is that we should be like Gary. We should be kind, we should be thoughtful, we should be ever curious.
 
Kirk (17:58)
This is Kirk Higgins. I'm the director of content at the Bill of Rights Institute. And think about the impact that Gary had. I think like all good educators, Gary's voice continues to be in my head as I look at the material I'm putting together, as I look at some of the challenges that I'm trying to solve, whether it's logistical or systems wise. Gary was a teacher first and foremost, and I think he was never satisfied in just getting to an answer, but it was understanding the process by which you got to that answer and ensuring that you understood why you were making the choices that you make. And to me, that's a pretty incredible thing. Thinking now about not only what he's meant to me, but what he's meant to this organization and what he's meant to all those individuals that he's touched through his work. I think what comes across to me is just how curious he was and how he always encouraged a feeling of thankfulness, of being thankful, of appreciating opportunities to learn from others, opportunities to deepen our own knowledge. And to me, that speaks volumes. It speaks directly to this podcast, which he had so much in putting together so much of his ideas.
 
Kirk (19:28)
So much of his spirit is in this because it is about asking questions, about seeking meaning in the ordinary things in life, finding miraculous moments in things that we take for granted, things we often overlook, things that we do as a part of our culture and our society. But when you step back and think about it, the profound nature of them, I think stands out. And Gary is an example that having an opportunity now to reflect on him and what he means to all of us. I think he was a miraculous person. And he was someone that profoundly influenced so many people that he had the opportunity to work with, to teach, to learn from. I think that kind of positive aura, for lack of a better word, that sort of positive influence that he had, I think, is tremendous. And something that's never, I hope is never going to fade. His legacy will live on through that. And that is something that I am truly, truly thankful for.
 
Eryn (20:48)
Hi, my name is Eryn Cochrane. Some of you may already recognize my voice from previous Fabric of History episodes. And so I was one of the cohosts on the podcast with Mary and Gary. And I always joked I had started at the Bill of Rights Institute. Let's see, August 2019. Can't remember the years anymore. And Gary, when I started, had mentioned this idea of a podcast. And it was very kind of pie in the sky, twinkle in the eye. And then he had started the podcast and gotten the equipment together, had a producer. Mary was going to be the voice of the podcast. And then we had to test out all the equipment, and he asked if I would help do a full recording. And so we did that recording in Gary's office. And then after that, maybe a day or so later, Gary came up to me and said, hey, you sounded really great on the podcast. Do you think you just want to join as one of our cohosts? And of course, me as a relatively new employee? I think this is probably like three months later said, okay, because I didn't want to say no.
 
Eryn (22:10)
I had to give a good impression. And so I would joke that I was voluntold into something that ended up becoming one. And some of my greatest memories from the beginning days of recording in Gary's office, where it would be dead of winter and you would be in a T-shirt and I would wish shorts because it was so hot in there. It was like a sauna. We finally upgraded our equipment got a bigger space and kept recording the podcast and became these wonderful stories that people have really enjoyed listening to. And I really have Gary to thank for involving me in that from the get-go. And looking back on it now, I realized how much confidence he must have had in me as a new employee at BRI to entrust me to be part of this new podcast and to just go with that. And I really appreciate him giving me that opportunity and all those memories. Gary always had this optimistic attitude and that translated and how he just lived his life and did his work, as well as his approach in relationship to colleagues, whether he had known them for five minutes or ten years.
 
Eryn (23:28)
And so it's just so wonderful. And I think we can all learn a lot from just believing in people and having that positive attitude and trying to frame that in all of my relationships going forward. And like, what would Gary do?
 
Josh (23:48)
I only had the privilege to see Gary teach one time. It was at a BRI retreat where we discussed our goals for our programs and content. I truly wish I could have seen him work in the classroom that day. He helped fuel a lively discussion around where we wanted to go as an Institute and how we could get there, and I can only imagine what he would have been like with students. I was fortunate enough to work with Gary on a variety of projects at BRI throughout the years, and his passion for our mission was evident every day. He will be missed dearly as a friend and colleague whose presence in the office can never be filled.
 
Mary (24:38)
Hi everyone, this is Mary Patterson. Even now, in our sharing stories and memories of Gary, I'm learning new things about him. I never knew he was inventing games for Awesome Con. I never knew he was into involved scavenger hunts. Learning these things doesn't surprise me, though, because he was that sort of person, inherently interesting and clever. Learning these things does, however, compound the sense of loss that he's gone. I wish I knew him better or talk with him more when he was here because I'd be a better person for it. Gary was my Myersbriggs opposite, literally. He was cheerful, outgoing, philosophical. One funny way this showed up was in our use of sarcasm. Sarcasm runs deep in my veins, and Gary, as a kind person, used it very sparingly. So sparingly, in fact, that I rarely got it when he used it. But that only made me laugh more when I finally caught up to him. Gary loved to ask big questions. You heard him doing this constantly on our podcast. I used to joke with him that if I were a student in his class, I would constantly be avoiding eye contact, and sometimes I'd even call him Professor Colletti.
 
Mary (25:55)
Asking those big questions was second nature to him. I think he delighted in challenging everyone to think deeply and make their thinking visible like truly excellent teachers do. Talking with him on here made me bring my a game. The last thing Gary said to me reflects the sort of person he was. He sent me a quick message after a call for our baseball podcast. If you listen to this episode you'll know that I'm not a real baseball fan so I was apprehensive about the topic. Gary, however, was having none of it. He thanked me for my perspective and questions. It was thoughtful and sincere. He was a real cheerleader. I never heard him say a negative thing. He was the best teammate. Gary always insisted I was the voice of the podcast but he was the heart. I can't believe that he's gone and I can't imagine filling the hole he leaves in our team. I think the simple fact is that we won't. He's irreplaceable. I want all of our listeners to know and all of Gary's friends and family to know that we all think of him often I think of what he would do or say to make our work better.
 
Mary (27:06)
I think of his good humor. In his eulogy. Gary's wife Rachel told us to lean on one another as we process his loss. At BRI, we are doing that, but I also lean on his memory and example. I promise Professor Colletti to keep challenging my thinking to keep learning and to try to not duck down when a big question comes my way I promise to keep asking questions in this way you'll never really leave us.