Patrice Braut: Joyously
Tenacious
At
a company Christmas party four years go, Patrice Braut
danced with a girl named Lupe. She fled into the night
before he could learn her last name. The next day, Lupe
Mendez found a note on her desk in Midtown, saying, "You
left without saying goodbye." She felt like
Cinderella.
Mr. Braut, 31, loved to travel, to play soccer and to
take pictures, especially of the twin towers. He took
Lupe to Brussels, Belgium, his hometown, to meet his
parents. He excelled in his M.B.A. courses at Pace
University. The first week of September, Lupe and
Patrice, who lived in Riverdale, in the Bronx, went
house-hunting in the suburbs. Mr. Braut was an only
child, born after three failed pregnancies. "He was the
little god of the family, adored by everybody," said his
mother, Paola. "We lost everything through him."
His colleagues in technology at Marsh & McLennan
have endowed a scholarship in his name at the Lycee
Theodore Bracops, his childhood school. It is not for the
best student, but for the most tenacious.
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