My very good friend and mentor Bjarne Magnus Iversen died the night to august 5th. He was born in March 1942 and became 69 years old. At the time of his death he was on a fishing trip with friends, one of whom found him dead in bed on Friday morning. The death was sudden and unexpected, but peaceful. He was in no way ready to leave us, but if he would have had a choice I am certain he would have liked nothing better than to die while fishing.
Bjarne was known for his modesty and great ability to make friends. He would describe him self as “just a fisherman from the fjords.” Everyone who had the benefit of meeting Bjarne got the feeling that he really cared about him or her and their lives. This was an ability that he used to great effect in his work as a physician, as a scientist and as an administrator. As outlined in any of the more formal obituaries he achieved much in his life and left us at the absolute peak of his career.
He was an avid fisherman and would never miss a chance to send pictures of his latest catch to everyone he knew. I used to take him hunting in Sweden, where he availed himself to several fine trophies and even better dinners of Swedish roe deer. A dream of his was to hunt moose, and although we did on one or two occasions he never got the chance to fell one. Our plans to rectify this in the autumn will now forever go unfulfilled.
Bjarne had the indomitable spirit to go from failure to failure without loosing enthusiasm for the project at hand, or loosing sight of the goal. As my thesis advisor and mentor this was his greatest asset. We will try to go on in his spirit and attack each new challenge with undiminished zeal.
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