Brian's Biography

Biography of *Brian Michael Shamel*
	Normally, I could talk for hours about my son, but somehow putting together a biography has been very difficult for me. Words do not seem adequate to express how special he was or how wonderful he was to the people who knew him.
Brian was born in Mansfield, Ohio on September 25, 1977. By the time he was 9 months old, we had lived in 4 different places. The next 13 years we lived in Wauseon, Ohio before moving to St. Louis, Missouri in 1990. Brian always had a smile on his face and a twinkle in his eyes. When he would walk into a room, no matter how depressed people would feel, he would brighten up their day and put smiles on their faces. He was a joy to be around. Brian accepted people the way they were. He was a friend to the friendless. In Wauseon, we had a neighbor boy about his same age who had constant seizures. Brian was always there for him and was his friend. In St. Louis, he had a friend who lost his hair due to a rare disease. Even though his other friends forsook him, Brian was always there for him. At Southeast Missouri State University, those who knew him felt that he was not just a roommate or someone down the hall, but he was like a brother to everyone, and when he died, they felt as though they had lost their brother.
Through most of his school years, Brian was one of the smaller boys in his class, and was often picked on and bullied by those who were bigger than him. But because he started school earlier than most boys, he was almost 2 years younger than other boys in his class. In junior high, he took Karate classes, earning his brown belt by the time he was in high school.
One day, the worst feared bully in high school was picking on Brian, as usual, knocking his books out of his arms and kicking them down the hall. Brian made a few quick moves, taking this bully by surprise and finding himself on the floor looking quite foolish. They did not pick on Brian much after that. In fact, the bully even became a friend.
	Besides Karate, Brian was interested in free-style biking, often "performing" in front of crowds at a nearby Lix ice-cream shop. The acrobatics were crowd pleasers. Brian and several of his biking friends were the first to generate interest in free-style biking as a sport in the St. Louis area. They even went to competition in Chicago. He also enjoyed street biking, often biking as much as 50 miles or more per day (on a 20 inch street bike).
In junior high, Brian played the trumpet, which is what his father had played when he was young. It wasn't till about a month before he died, while listening to a Kenny G tape that he told me that he always wanted to play the saxophone but had played the trumpet because he thought we wanted him to.
He wasn't into much competition of any sort. I entered him into a Karate competition once, and he came home with a first place trophy. I was so proud of him, but that trophy just sat in his room. I soon realized that it meant more to me than it did to him. In college he played intramural sports such as football and basketball, and also loved climbing. In football, he made most of the touchdowns. Since he was the fastest runner on the team, they often threw the ball to him. It was a good thing he was so fast because had they caught up with him, he would have been lunchmeat since he only weighed about 130 pounds! He also enjoyed weight lifting and wrestling with his roommate, Marc Marion and his suitemates. They often had pillowfights, food fights and other joyous and fun activities that a college kid can get himself into. Brian was always a good sport and lots of fun to play with and be with. As he was growing up, every year we took our vacation going to visit grandparents and going to the ocean. In 1992, we had a once-in-a-lifetime, last-hurrah vacation to Hawaii, where Brian enjoyed such things as surfing, swimming, sailing and snorkeling. He fell in love with the ocean, the beautiful fish and corals, so much so that when it became time to go home, he refused to get on the plane desiring to stay, even if it meant living as a hermit on the beach! I believe this is when he became interested in pursuing marine biology. Brian had always been tenderhearted and loving toward animals of all kinds, but the bottlenosed dolphins seem to be what he was most interested in--perhaps because the dolphins were playful, innocent mammals that were often predicated by humans. Brian was not only tenderhearted, but he loved to protect the innocent from outside forces. This was characteristic of Brian not only with animals and plants but also of people. Brian was such a caring individual and this was reflected in everything he did or said. In the summer he worked with a landscaper and was able to learn a lot about the plants and trees. He enjoyed working with nature. At home, he loved animals but we soon found that he was allergic to cats and dogs, among other things. So he attempted to raise all sorts of fish. He had several 55 gallon tanks as well as several smaller tanks. He even had a school of sea horses, which unfortunately didn't survive very long, as well as probably a hundred varieties of other exotic species of fish. Unfortunately, I think he learned more from experience than from research in those days!
A biography of Brian would not be complete without explaining the reason why he was such a wonderful and joyous person. Brian was a Christian and loved the Lord. He would have wanted everyone who is reading this to have the joy that he exemplified in his life. Please read Steps to becoming a Christian OR How to get to Heaven. We all firmly believe that Brian is in Heaven and would want you to know how that you, too, can be sure of going there, and to have the same joy in your heart that he had.
Brian was killed in an automobile accident on January 4, 1997 as he fell asleep at the wheel of his Jeep, while coming home after the holidays. Students from Southeast Missouri State University were home for the Christmas break, but they as well as many others traveled from all over the United States to pay their respects to such a wonderful, precious friend, brother and son.
--written by Shirley Shamel
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