After a hard fought battle with Leukemia, Rick Byrne passed away on October 26th at home surrounded by the people who meant the most to him. Rick was currently the Brand Creative Lead at Docsend, Dropbox but previously worked at Oracle, Unity, Iron Creative, Sitecore and CBS Interactive. You could easily run into him at most design events in and around San Francisco and he always made himself accessible to anyone who needed guidance about the profession.
Rick served the AIGA San Francisco design community through almost 9 years of service on the Board of Directors as Program Co-Chair. Over that course of time, he produced or helped other volunteers with over 80 events including events which mentored students and designers transitioning throughout their career which included topics such as‘Your Design Career and How to Get Where You Want to Be’ and ‘Articulating the Value of Design’. He also produced monthly tours inside of some of the most interesting design studios in San Francisco including Facebook, Levi’s and the SF Giants. He created a unique series for AIGA SF Design//Work about careers as a designer.
He always wanted to make AIGA SF a warm and inviting organization to be part of for both new and experienced designers. When we spoke to him a few weeks ago he reiterated that “...serving the SF design community was truly a great experience in my life.”
Irina Blok remembers Rick as "Always so positive and enthusiastic, he did so much for the design community. He gave me public speaking tips which were very helpful. I always enjoyed volunteering with Rick at events and I can't believe he is gone."
Rick was a humorous and eternally optimistic person, had great energy and truly cared for the design community he served and was selfless in giving of his time mentoring designers and colleagues alike.
Rick’s personality was to always look for humor in things and wrote this article on using it as part of his treatment.The AIGA San Francisco Board of Directors and Bay Area design community is indebted to his contributions and his memory will live on through all those he inspired over the past decade.
SERVICES:
Rick will be laid to rest in a graveside burial at Mount Tamalpais Cemetery on Friday, November 3rd at 2.30 pm with a celebration of life to follow directly afterwards at the Mayflower Pub in San Rafael, 1533 4th St, San Rafael.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to support Leukemia research at UCSF. Rick loved Dr. Dunivan, all of the nurses at the infusion center and the quality of care he received so much at UCSF and knows they’re working hard to find a cure.
Please send donations to: UCSF Foundation, PO Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145 or make a gift online at makeagift.ucsf.edu. Please be sure to note that the gift is in memory of Rick Byrne to support the Leukemia research of Dr. Neil Dunivan.
A very outgoing and friendly person, Rick Byrne will be remembered by so many people for many different reasons. Born in Dublin, Ireland he was a loving husband of 20 years to wife Stacy (nee Schafer), and engaged dad to sons Richard and Aidan, a brother to Cassandra and Tara, a son-in-law to Ben Schafer and a trusted friend to so many. Rick passed away at home surrounded by his family yesterday. Over nearly a year he fought with bravery and resilience to overcome his Leukemia diagnosis but sadly he succumbed to the illness.
Rick graduated from the Dublin Institute of Technology with a focus on design, later going to London’s prestigious Central St Martin’s art college for a masters degree. After working in several tech companies including most recently Dropbox, Rick found his design forte in creating logos with more recent international recognition of his skills happening right before his passing.
During his time in London Rick also served in the British Territorial Army, at one point volunteering to go to Kosovo as a UN peacekeeper during that country’s conflict. Rick always regretted that the mission got canceled.
A chance meeting in a San Francisco bar while on vacation changed Rick’s life when he met Stacy, his future wife. Enticing her to move to London where he lived at the time, Rick proposed after a year. The wedding followed a year later followed by a move to the US where Rick spent most of that time in Marin which he loved (Point Reyes in particular). Sons Richard and later Aidan were born, both becoming a tremendous focus for Rick’s time and energy in the years since. Rick was a beloved member of the Corte Madera community and will be missed by so many people.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a gift to support Leukemia research at UCSF. Rick loved Dr. Dunivan, all of the nurses at the infusion center and the quality of care he received so much at UCSF and knows they’re working hard to find a cure.
Please send donations to: UCSF Foundation, PO Box 45339, San Francisco, CA 94145 or make a gift online at makeagift.ucsf.edu . Please be sure to note that the gift is in memory of Rick Byrne to support the Leukemia research of Dr. Neil Dunivan.