[sustran] Brian Williams

[Ramon Fernan]

My few words about Brian.

What a shock! I still can't believe it's actually happened. I don't
think I ever heard of him having heart problems. I know he was tired
from the recent traveling he's had to do, what with setting up Genus
and his other work. This is reallly sad news and I feel like I've lost
a good friend, someone I've known since 1993. He was a good person and,
I'm sure, a loving husband to his wife and kind father to his kids. He loved to tell the story of how, as
a Peace Corps volunteer, he was assigned to work in a small town in the Visayas region (central Philippines) to assist in setting up something, maybe a water system, I don't remember anymore, and how, frustrated with the town mayor, he exiled himself out in the country, living in
a small native hut with a kid assisting him and keeping him company. We were in Penang together with Paul Barter and Anwar Fazal from UNDP and some other people for the workshop that launched Sustran. In the mid-90's he was in Manila
for a while working as a fellow and advising our Department of
Transportation on sustainable transport. We used to bicycle around the
city even though I think he hated having to inhale the
pollution from cars and jeepneys and buses, and to dodge careening motor vehicles on Manila's
chaotic streets. He had such stories of his adventures here. I hope
that all the good work he was doing at UN Habitat wilI continue as he
would have wanted. I will certainly miss him.


Ramon Fernan III