Remembering Bret Davidson

Our friend and coworker Bret Davidson passed away early in the morning on July 10, after a battle with cancer over the last year.

Bret joined the Libraries in the spring of 2012 as an NCSU Libraries Fellow in Digital Library Initiatives (DLI) with an initiative based in Information Technology, during which time he worked on the development of several widely used software applications. After his two-year fellowship, he was appointed as Digital Technologies Development Librarian in DLI, providing technical leadership and programming expertise for a broad portfolio of Libraries projects. In 2017, Bret became Associate Head of DLI, managing the entire lifecycle of projects and serving as a mentor and technical leader for staff, Fellows, and graduate students.

Bret fell ill last spring and was away from work for the last year, but he stayed involved in DLI projects. He has left a lasting mark on DLI’s departmental culture, and on the Libraries’ approaches to software development. Among his many accomplishments at the Libraries, Bret led the strategic initiative to explore open science at NC State through the 2016 Open Science Unconference, an innovative and highly successful “Summer of Open Science” faculty workshop series, the creation of a Fellows initiative around expanding support for open science, and the development of reproducible scientific computing environments. He had been working on machine learning applications to do things ranging from the analysis of microscopic images to the optimization of furniture layout in library spaces.

Bret’s legacy at the Libraries is much more than a list of projects and programs, however. Within a sometimes siloed field, he was a remarkable collaborator and connector of people. Bret’s collaborative example and spirit lives on in his coworkers.

Kevin Beswick worked closely with Bret in DLI on projects including the application of deep learning to library problems (co-presenting with him on the topic at last summer’s TRLN annual meeting) and the organization of the Code4Lib Southeast 2019 conference held at NC State. “Working with Bret was special. He was so intelligent, insightful, and full of great ideas,” Beswick recalls. “He had a way of making me feel comfortable sharing my own ideas even in the most raw form. He also had a way of bringing out the best in the people he worked with. One of the things that I appreciated most when working closely on projects with Bret was that we could make serious progress on novel, innovative work while joking around and having fun.”

Jennifer Garrett came to the Libraries in the same Fellows class as Bret, and she recalls his skill as a presenter, project manager, and gifted connector of people. More importantly, she remembers constant, “face-hurting laughing” when they were together. “Our cohort was the group that started in the months leading up to the Hunt Library opening,” she writes. “It was a time of breaking and re-breaking molds/things. I was the latest arrival of the three of us, but very quickly our cohort found connection in appreciation for good food, good drink, and talking. This became especially true for Bret and me. In addition to aged steak and dumplings, we found connections on things like leadership topics, classical music, grief, martial arts, video games, “The Big Lebowski,” and ridiculous humor. Of course many of these connections are also a credit to my husband, Daniel, who also became very close to Bret.”

Jill Sexton remembers Bret as a skilled and devoted community builder, whose dedication to librarianship was exemplified in his work to organize Code4Lib Southeast last year. “He hadn't been feeling 100% during the planning, but he organized this event that brought about 100 people from all over the southeast to the Hunt Library to share cutting-edge work in library technology. He learned of his diagnosis just days before the event, yet he carried on as a local host and organizer and didn't share the news of his illness so that others could enjoy the meeting. If I recall correctly, that was his last day in the Libraries before beginning treatment. That was Bret.”

Bret received the Master of Information Science and the Master of Library Science, Digital Libraries Specialization, from Indiana University (IU) Bloomington, where he was awarded the School of Library and Information Science Merit Scholarship and the H.W. Wilson Scholarship. Bret was also an accomplished musician. After getting a BS in Music Education from Duquesne University, he was a member of Pittsburgh’s renowned River City Brass Band, as well as a high school music teacher and band director.

Bret was a remarkable librarian, and an exemplary person as well. He was unwaveringly kind and friendly, always smiling. Many colleagues have recalled his ubiquitous fleece jacket, which he wore regardless of the temperature or season—”It simplifies things," he would say. He was quick with a joke, deploying an encyclopedic knowledge of “The Simpsons” to bring levity to work situations, and always up for a pint with coworkers after work was done. He had been working toward his Cicerone certification (think sommelier but for beer).

Bret will be remembered as a strategic and creative thinker, generous mentor and adviser, bright spirit, and dear friend.

Bret’s family plans to dedicate a stone memorial bench at the JC Raulston Arboretum (JCRA) to Bret, who frequently visited the JCRA. This bench and dedication plaque will be a place of rest, reflection, and remembrance for all of us as well as all visitors to this wonderful garden. Friends can contribute memorial donations toward the bench through August 1 (Bret’s birthday) either online (please check “This is an honorary or memorial gift” and enter “Bret Davidson” in the “Honoree Name/Department” field) or by check (payable to “NC Agricultural Foundation, Inc.,” write “JCRA Endowment for Excellence, Bret Davidson memorial” in memo, mail to: JC Raulston Arboretum at NC State University, Campus Box 7522, Raleigh, NC 27695-7522).