Kathy Canapini has recollections of Brian Barczyk from highschool. From rock and roll. From many years of New Year’s Eves, the Barcyzks and the Canapinis collectively.
And, from watching a snake dig its fangs into his arm ― and watching her old buddy deal with it like one thing lower than a mosquito chew.
“He’d just say, ‘It’s part of the job. You’ve got to let nature take its course,’ ” Canapini stated.
Barczyk, who turned a childhood fascination with snakes into a number of reptile-related businesses and greater than 15 million social media followers worldwide, died Monday at 54 at his home in Warren.
Unfazed by what he estimated at tens of 1000’s of bites from nonvenomous snakes, he was felled by pancreatic most cancers. He’d been in a race with the illness since his prognosis a yr in the past, hoping to see one more progressive dream come to life ― an interactive zoo and aquarium in Utica known as LegaSea.
LegaSea, scheduled to open in mid-March, sits throughout Van Dyke Avenue from BHB Reptiles, his breeding and gross sales operation, and a public museum often known as The Reptarium.
They had been open as all the time Tuesday, stated social media director Stephanie Kent. Snakes must eat, and other people must be taught.
“People love what they’ll contact,” Barczyk informed the Free Press in June, so he and his spouse, Lori, designed the Reptarium to be as interactive as doable when reveals are stuffed with large boa constrictors or a 125-pound alligator snapping turtle named Bowser.
“He truly was a visionary,” stated Kent, an worker of 9 years.
Barczyk ― pronounced BAR-check ― bred styles of snakes not often seen earlier than, in portions not often achieved. He additionally invented instruments and merchandise, she stated, amongst them improved snake hooks and incubation equipment.
The curiosity was clear at Center Line High School, stated Canapini, even when the entrepreneurial bent wanted to be developed.
A bass guitarist, Barczyk dropped out to pursue rock and roll, although he later earned a GED. Meantime, he labored at a long-gone store known as Pet Vendor at 10 Mile and Van Dyke, and badgered his mom into letting him maintain just a few snakes ― and shortly just a few hundred ― at home.
“He created a reputation and a distinct segment for himself that went far past our little mile-by-mile city,” Canapini stated.
As phrase of his dying unfold, tributes got here from as distant as Australia, the place the daddy of the late conservationist Steve Irwin despatched condolences, and as close to as Utica metropolis corridor.
“Thank you Brian Barczyk for leaving this typically unhappy world in such a greater means than you discovered it,” wrote Mayor Gus Calandrino. “Thank you Brian Barczyk in your message of affection and kindness and spreading it to so many, many individuals.”
“Your LegaSea,” Calandrino concluded, “will proceed.”
Barczyk is survived by his spouse, Lori, who he married after they had been each youngsters; youngsters Jade (Michael) Albrecht and Noah; brother Glen Barczyk; sister Cynthia Rivera, and two grandchildren.
The household will maintain a “Public Memorial Walk-through” from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday at Heritage Church, 44625 Schoenherr Rd., in Sterling Heights.
Memorial choices for the tens of millions of supporters often known as the Reptile Army, and others who would possibly wish to be concerned, are outlined on-line by way of the Reptarium.
Among the probabilities is a wall plaque at LegaSea, the place Barczyk’s handprints will grace the doorway of an attraction he did not fairly reside to see accomplished.
