Bradford on Beer
Loss of a Friend
Posted January 14, 2010 1 Comment | Post a Comment
We lost a good one last Friday. After 4 years of fighting colon cancer, Jeff Becker, President of the Beer Institute passed away. We grieve for the loss of a good friend, a wonderful person and a passionate industry advocate.
Jeff was one of the more interesting members of our industry. Consider being an unflappable optimist while working in Washington DC? Neat trick, yet Jeff always believed things would work out for the best, and his track record suggested that belief was well founded. He labored for years protecting our right to enjoy beer with a minimum of aggravation and expense. Anheuser-Busch/Inbev recognized his contribution by having Duke, a Clydesdale, honor Jeff by standing guard during the service.
Industry people gathered at the office of the National Beer Wholesalers Association the day before the service during which many a toast was offered recognizing how much Jeff meant to all of us. People reflected on his challenges with sensitivity training, his particular version of off-color humor, and other character-defining attributes.
However, all shared a common sense of having enjoyed the company of a rare and great man. He could orchestrate an effective campaign to head off and tax hike while giving comfort as the vicissitudes of life caused personal disruptions. He schooled me in the strategies and tactics of being an association executive during my tenure at the Brewers’ Association of America. He provided inclusive leadership as the craftbrewers began taking seats at the big table.
The service, and reception following, had between 750 and 1,000 guests. The testaments from podium and pulpit alike filled out the life of an industry giant. Family and friends talked about a family man, a cook, a lifelong friend, and someone who gave life and love to all he met.
I’m not going to even discuss his legendary golf game. Apparently he shot in the low 30s on nine holes the week before he died. Amazing. Then there’s the tequila, but that’s another story.
We’ll all miss him for a very long time. Our heart goes out to his wife, son and daughter.
Hi. I am a registered nurse at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. I work in the GI/Endoscopy clinic where we do colonoscopy exams. I am always so sad to hear of any person’s death from colon cancer, especially so early in life. Colon cancer is a very ‘preventable’ cancer, and I encourage everyone to have their screening exams starting at age 50. If any of your first degree relatives (i.e. father, mother, sister, brother) has had colon cancer, you need to start your screenings earlier depending on the age they were when they were diagnosed. If there is any family history of colon polyps or colon cancer, you should discuss this with your family physician, as you may need to start your exams earlier in life. People say the worst part of colonoscopy is the preparation and that’s right! We give conscious sedation for the procedure, and believe me, you won’t remember a single thing about it. (I don’t remember mine at all.) Because you get sedation, and you could test positive for narcotics up to 24 hrs after you receive them, you have to have someone to drive/accompany you to and from your appt. I can’t tell you the precentage of people who have polyps. What I can tell you is, you think you would know if you had a colon cancer, but I would say most of the patients we find with large polyps, cancer, or almost totally obstructing lesions, aren’t having any symptoms or problems at all. I realize co-pays are going up, and health care in general is undergoing a lot of changes. A colonoscopy is a routine screening exam just like mammogram, pap smear, prostate check, etc. so don’t ‘put it off’. It could save your life!