​Longtime anthropology professor Lina Fruzzetti remembers when she was tasked in 2016 with interviewing Eric Estes, then Oberlin College’s dean of students, for the position of Brown’s vice president for campus life. “He was genuine, human, honest, comfortable with himself, self-assured in his words and with a very dry sense of humor,” she recalls. “We wanted to stop halfway through and say, ‘Hey, this job is yours.’”

But what really clinched it for Fruzzetti was when Estes, over their lunch interview, ordered lamb chops. “Most candidates, in addition to being overly careful about what they say, will order a small salad, which you know isn’t what they want,” she says. “But Eric just looked at me and said, ‘I love lamb chops.’ And that translated to me as an honest person.”

In early June, countless members of the Brown community were dismayed to learn that, on June 4, Estes passed away at age 55 of a sudden illness. BAM talked to a dozen of his current and former colleagues; almost uniformly, they described him as one of the most compassionate, intelligent, hospitable, funny, and deftly diplomatic university administrators they’d known.

In a campus-wide email June 4, President Christina H. Paxson wrote: “Eric was especially dedicated to the success and well-being of students ....During his time at Brown, he guided plans for a new center for health and wellness and three new residence halls.... And Eric worked to build stronger support for military-affiliated students, international students, and students with disabilities. In addition to creating strong facilities and programs, Eric treasured his informal interactions with students, frequently hosting dinners and gatherings for students in his home.”

Estes was “maybe the smartest person I’ve ever met,” said Caitlin O’Neill, the director of Stonewall House, the Brown LGBTQ center for which Estes, who identified as LGBTQ, played a large role in moving into vastly more spacious digs in 2022. “He was really great at being able to zoom out of things and see a bigger picture.” While an Oberlin undergrad, O’Neill worked under Estes, who at the time was head of Oberlin’s Multicultural Resource Center. Estes was across the country when the discovery of racist and homophobic graffiti on campus upended the school. “But he talked us through all of it on the phone,” O’Neill recalls, “guiding us on how to help the students talk through the different things they were feeling.”