‘Ready to change the world’

FAIRFIELD - A memorial fund has been established to raise money for sound equipment at the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center in honor of a former employee of the center who died earlier this month.

Brian MacQueen was technical director at the arts center from 2015-2018, and rejoined the staff in February, helping to put on the center's drive-in movie later that month.

MacQueen suffered a sudden pulmonary embolism that sent him to the intensive care unit at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. He died March 1 at the age of 63, surrounded by family and friends.

To honor his memory, the family has established a memorial that they hope will raise $10,000 toward sound equipment that can be used both indoors and out. Mendy McAdams, development director at the center, said the goal is to purchase audio equipment to use during the center's 'Summer Sun” series of outdoor concerts, which will be held every other Wednesday from June 2 through Aug. 11. After the series is over, the equipment will be used inside the Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts.

McAdams said MacQueen was thrilled about the prospect of turning the Sondheim into a movie theater to attract another segment of the population who might not come to the live shows. In the few weeks they knew each other, McAdams said MacQueen impressed her as someone who was 'ready to change the world.”

'He wanted to know every detail and to do everything,” she said. 'He was always looking for ways to make the center the best it could be with as little money as possible.”

Norma VanCamp has worked at the center for six years and is now its facilities manager. She said MacQueen was a great co-worker who always smiled even when he didn't want to. She said MacQueen had many talents that he didn't talk about. For instance, one day she heard someone playing the piano in the theater. She walked in to discover it was MacQueen.

'I told him, ‘I didn't know you played piano!'” she said. 'There were probably a lot of things like that people didn't know about Brian.”

The arts center staff plan to plant a magnolia tree in MacQueen's honor in a grassy patch on the east side of the property.

Hamilton said her brother had been battling illness for a few years before his death. He went to the ICU in 2018 after developing congestive heart failure. That was just a few weeks after he had quit working at the center.

'He had utterly exhausted himself,” Hamilton said. 'He got the flu, which then turned into pneumonia.”

He surprised everyone by seeming to make a full recovery.

'He came out of it and started working out at the gym,” Hamilton said. 'He could very well have been an invalid for the rest of his life, but he had this incredible determination for what he was doing.”

Hamilton said her brother was excited to return to the center to work under new Executive Director Lindsay Bauer.

'Her hiring of Brian was very poignant and comforting because she was getting him in line to help the [arts center] get back up and running,” Hamilton said. '[Bauer] was a breath of fresh air. She wanted to move him back to what he was doing because he was an extremely practiced and brilliant man who loved working for this little theater.”

Hamilton said MacQueen was filled with hope and excitement. Then tragedy struck.

Hamilton said her brother is her closest sibling in age.

'It feels like losing a twin,” she said. 'He was so amazing, and from the time he was 8 years old he would write plays. That's where his juices ran.”

Hamilton said her brother loved being part of a team that gave people a magical experience inside the theater. She hopes this new memorial fund will improve the quality of the sound of the center's performances, so they can be that much more magical.