I want to thank you for your coverage of Greg’s passing. I had the honor to speak at his memorial, and I wanted to highlight one esteemable piece of Greg’s life.

I am the treasurer of the Board of Trustees for the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library, in my seventh year representing Brookfield on that board. But more than that, I have been a library patron for even longer.

I hope to fully convey the praise that is due to Greg for his nearly three decades of service to the community. Kimberly Coughran, the library director for much of Greg’s tenure, wanted me to share the sympathy the library community has for Greg and his family. She wanted to especially note the awe inspired by his long tenure and wonderful character in the face of numerous health challenges he had faced over the years. Kim adds that everyone at the library loved Greg and will miss him terribly.

I know that over the last months, the board has been eager to hear news about how he is doing and what we can do to support Greg and his family. We slowly transitioned from hoping for recovery to hoping for comfort.

For me, in my years in Brookfield, Greg was a constant at the front desk. I don’t want to misrepresent the depth of my relationship with Greg. We never moved much past small talk, and I don’t know what his favorite food or movie was. But what I can do is look back and take partial measure of the life Greg lived. Earlier, I used the word “service,” and I don’t use that lightly because of how much respect I place upon that word.

There is honor and dignity in serving your fellow man and woman. Greg embodied service and is due the respect we all owe to those who give their time and effort to service. With his role in Circulation, he was one of the faces of the library for a generation — and more — of people in the Brookfield community. He was the first person people would come to with questions, and the last one they talked to as they checked out their materials; he was also the front line for any of the sticky situations that arise in any public-facing role.

Greg and people like him, who live their lives in service to others, are the sort of glue that holds our communities together. We don’t owe him thanks specifically as just members of the library family or even the larger Brookfield community, but we need to recognize that Greg lived his life as a model we should all aspire to — living a life of service.

Greg is gone, and the world is worse for his passing.

My hope is that we can all make it a small bit better by emulating his example.

John Edgar Miheloc
Brookfield