Last Thursday evening, October 21st, driving his young daughter Anna home after picking her up from daycare, our co-worker Andy Kotowicz was involved in a terrible car accident that, so incredibly sadly, proved fatal. In what qualifies as nothing short of miraculous and definitively heroic, his daughter was pulled from the remains of the car, while it was on fire, by a local business owner who witnessed the accident. Though this same person tried and was unable to rescue Andy, I can think of no greater favor to our friend than saving his daughter’s life. And, in some small measure of thanks, we will all be eating as many Rizzo’s French Dip sandwiches as we can hold for a very long time. “Thank you” seems ridiculously inadequate, but thank you. Thank you.

Andy was under care at Harborview Medical Center in a coma until Saturday evening when he was taken off life support in the company of his immediate family. He was an organ donor and a recipient for his kidneys was found very soon after his passing. This is a small indication of the kind of guy he was.

Anna suffered some bruises and a broken arm, but is now home with her mother and family and is, we are told, recovering and adapting. There is a lesson here about the resilience and redemptive powers of children that we can all hope to learn from.

And so, those are the facts as we know them regarding the accident.

The facts as I know them regarding my friend, our friend, I am, I’m sorry to admit, unable to fully present right now. It’s too, too much. He was smart and funny and enthused; passionate in his love of music and his family; a patient and steadfast friend. He worked here at Sub Pop for the past ten and a half years and his contributions here, to the bands and artists we work with, and to us are innumerable and though I will be forced to do so, we all will, I cannot imagine any of it without him. I admired him, respected him, turned to him when I needed help and he never failed me. I know the rest of his family here feel the same. He was universally loved and it was all of our great good fortune to find ourselves in his company.

There will be more to say and write about this later, but right now, our friend has died and we are simply and utterly heartbroken.

Please see below There will be a memorial service for Andy here in Seattle soon, and when we have those details together we’ll post them here. We’re also putting together a charitable fund for Andy’s family and when that’s set up, we’ll share that info here as well. Please see below

We love you, Andy, and will miss you every day.

UPDATE w/r/t Andy’s memorial service and donations…

In memory, honor and celebration of the life of Andy Kotowicz, there will be a memorial service held at Seattle’s Town Hall on Monday, November 1st, 2010 beginning at 1:00 pm.

We hope to see you there.

Town Hall is located here:
1119 Eighth Avenue (at Seneca Street)
Seattle, WA 98101
Directions and parking info

It’s recently been brought to our attention that we should add a little bit of info here w/r/t what to wear to Andy’s memorial. His family requested that, in keeping with the spirit of the man we’re gathering to honor, the event be kept informal. You should please come as you are.

Further…
A Sound Community Bank account is now available to accept donations for Andy Kotowicz’s family.

Please make checks payable to the Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation.

They can be mailed here:
Andy Kotowicz Family Foundation
c/o Sub Pop Records
2013 Fourth Ave., 3rd Floor
Seattle, WA 98121

Or checks can be delivered to Sound Community Bank at one of the locations listed here

There is a link to donate via Paypal here.

Still further…
Andy supported the organizations below. You might like to do the same.

WFMU

The Greening of Detroit