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Joy From Responsibilities

Richard Bruehert was always the serious and responsible one of his four brothers. He got a paper route when he was young and was the manager of the local McDonald's by 19. Later, after he married Jo Anne White, became a father and was working as vice president for technology at Marsh & McLennan, he would rise early on weekends and do the family grocery shopping. When his father died in November 2000, he played a major role in caring for his mother.

Such responsibilities were never onerous for him. Whether weeding his tomato patch or shoveling snow in the driveway, he usually had one of his two daughters — Christina, 6, and Danielle, 2 — right beside him.

Mr. Bruehert, 38, was also always eager to face a challenge. In the 1970's, he bought a computer long before the PC craze and taught himself computer games. Two years ago, he learned to fly a single-engine plane, but quit when he decided it kept him away from his children too much. Last summer, he took sailing lessons in Virginia, bought a boat and sailed it across Long Island Sound. "He bought it so the family could spend more time together," Mrs. Bruehert said.

Profile published in THE NEW YORK TIMES on May 5, 2002.