Gerald Kish was a movie buff, a sci-fi enthusiast and the guy picked first for trivia teams.
He had a crazy tie collection, an almost unnavigable office and the perfect story for every occasion.
He touched the lives of friends, coworkers, students and community members alike during his life.
Last Friday, while scuba diving in Cozumel, Mexico, Kish suffered a heart attack underwater and drowned, according to a Mexican medical examiner's report.
He was 54.
In Gainesville, Kish worked as an adjunct professor for UF, teaching courses in public speaking, argumentation, comedy and pop culture.
"He was one of the few teachers I've had in college who actually cared about each individual student," said Greg Taylor, a public relations junior who took a business communications course with Kish. "He was a great guy."
Kish also worked at the North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center - a facility for people who are judged incompetent to proceed to trial or who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity.
Here, he was the director of continuity of care, orchestrating patients' admissions and discharges from the center.
He made living and care arrangements for the patients who were released back into the community.
Kish had phenomenal speaking and people skills, making him very good at dealing with patients, said Bill Baxter, the center's administrator.
"He had a terrific sense of humor - he could tell a joke better than anyone else," Baxter said. "He could speak on any subject at the drop of a hat. Even if he made it all up, it would still be convincing."
Kish worked hard to better the lives of mentally ill people involved in the criminal justice system by teaching attorneys, judges, mental health providers and law enforcement officers around the state about the forensic mental health system.
In Alachua County, he helped establish the Crisis Intervention Team training that hundreds of police officers have since gone through to be better prepared to handle a situation involving adults or children with mental illnesses.
Baxter said Alachua County Sheriff Sadie Darnell called him Tuesday to let him know how important Kish's work was to the community and how much he will be missed.
"He was so doggone cool," said Kellie Roberts, the interim director for UF's Dial Center for Written and Oral Communication and Kish's longtime friend. "He was one of the smartest guys I've ever known."
She described him as one of those people who could relate to anybody.
"If you met him on a bus, before you got off you'd be his buddy," she said. "He had so many friends."
She wasn't exaggerating.
Earlier this week, a man emailed Roberts to express his shock and condolences - he had eaten dinner with Kish only one time.
"He was an absolutely marvelous human being in every sense of the word," said the woman who answered the phone at the North Florida Evaluation and Treatment Center. "He was my walking Google."
Everyone has a short list of people they know they can count on no matter what, Roberts said.
And with the passing of her friend of 30 years - "I have one less person on that list."
Kish is survived by his mother and his two sisters.
Roberts said she expects the memorial service to take place sometime in October.
Gerald Kish, an adjunct professor at UF, died last Friday while scuba diving in Mexico. This photo was taken at a public-speaking forum on March 26, 2009.
