Brian Kreizinger was an amazing dad, husband, son, brother and friend. He was a high school art teach at Taunton High School in Massachusetts and a huge Celtics fan (if you asked him about Jaylen Brown, you always had to be prepared for a rant about him throwing up bricks). His entire life was dedicated to his family. He took incredible pride in choosing the most sentimental gifts for his wife Kate and other loved ones. He loved taking his two kids, Audrey (age 13) and Oliver (age 8) on “adventures,” which regularly included fishing, cooking lessons, beach trips, animal sanctuary visits, ropes courses, rides in “the beast,” bike rides, and a myriad of other activities. Outside of his family activities, Brian has been known to have the best gifts for the friends’ annual Yankee Swap, indulge in hot weenies and cinnamon buns, play basketball with his high school buddies, and make to-do lists all day long. He also earned 3 college degrees and considered himself a lifelong student. He despised idle time and always found a way to squeeze in yardwork during a 15-minute halftime while watching the New England Patriots.

In June of 2023, Brian (or BK as many of you know him by) went into the hospital with stomach pain thinking it was an ulcer and came out with a diagnosis of an extremely rare cancer known as Cholangiocarcinoma (Bile Duct Cancer). The odds were stacked against him from the jump as he was diagnosed at stage 4 due to this cancer hiding until it had metastasized. Brian started chemo and immunotherapy on a Wednesday and was building the kids a treehouse to surprise them with on Friday. That is the kind of dad and human he was. Brian had really positive treatment results until he started having headaches in April of 2024. In May of 2024, he was hospitalized and a spinal tap revealed that his cancer had an almost unheard of spread to his spinal fluid (known as leptomeningeal disease). This is a dire cancer metastasis where many patients only live weeks after symptoms start. In true Brian fashion, he had a shunt inserted to drain the fluid from his skull to his stomach and pushed on to keep living. He wrote a paper to finish one of his educational licenses, he applied to a doctoral program, he and Kate took a cruise with the kids to Alaska, and he completed numerous house projects with many still on his “to-do list.”

Unfortunately, Brian was hospitalized in March 2025 for a shunt revision. That helped for a week, and he was able to watch Ollie test for his blue belt 2 hours after he was discharged. He was then hospitalized again, and surgeons replaced the entire shunt so that he would be able to be released to see Audrey perform in her play that she had been working so hard for. Not only did he see the show; he made it to all 3 days! Brian also was able to see Ollie awarded his blue belt one week after his test and had a sibling dinner (per his request) with Adam and Kelly that Saturday night. However, late Saturday, the head pressure came back and on Sunday night, he needed to be readmitted to Mass General Hospital. At that point, the focus was on pain management and keeping Brian comfortable. We all spent the day with him on Tuesday, and even though he was mostly sedated, he opened his eyes when we were getting ready to leave, said “Hi, everyone,” and gave us two thumbs up when we told him we all loved him. That’s the way he would have wanted to say goodbye. At 6:45 am on April 17, 2025, Brian passed peacefully with Kate by his side. He was 41 years old.