Remembering the Legacy of Dale E. Brashers and His Contributions to Health Communication

Abstract

On July 5, 2010, Dale E. Brashers, head of the Departmentof Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and key figure in the field of health commu-nication, passed away in his university office. He was 50years old.Theimpactofthislossisstillexpanding,ripplingthroughthe field and the vast network of people who knew him ascolleague, mentor, or friend. For some, his death was noless painful than losing a parent, so special was this manto them. Equally severe is the loss to the field of healthcommunication, in which Brashers was a central and highlyvisible figure. His scholarly contributions, applied clinicalwork, mentorship of junior health communication scholars,and leadership in our national and international professionalorganizations all helped advance our discipline, broaden-ing its reach and increasing its visibility among the healthsciences. Although Brashers held some interest in groupsand argumentation (Jacobs, Brashers, & Dawson, 1996;Meyers & Brashers, 1999; Meyers, Brashers, & Hanner,2000; Rintamaki & Brashers, 2010), he is best known forhis methodological research and theoretical advancement ofuncertainty management. For these reasons, the 100