JEFFREY GUILLEBEAU

The Jeffrey Guillebeau Memorial Fund was created in memory of our great friend Jeff Guillebeau who passed away January 5, 2024 . 

He was a one of a kind servant leader with a larger than life personality.  He committed his life to making others better.  When someone was in need, he was a first responder.  A mark of a great leader is your ability to influence people to fulfill their potential.  Jeff was a great leader, friend, and brother who made all of us better. The life of this great man was built on four pillars: Faith, Family, Fitness and Fellowship.
 
Jeff knew no half measures and precious few full measures. An avid reader, sneaky-good cook and habitual connector of people, all living things were drawn to Jeff like iron shavings to a magnet. He loved great poetry, wrote good poetry, and never met a microphone he didn’t like or a country song he felt he couldn’t, and therefore shouldn’t, cover. But one word and one word only explains the charisma of this most uncommon man: Love.
 
Love for his Family in Brevard, North Carolina, who first taught the boy the values that made him who he was. Remember where you came from. Stay in the fight. Be on time. Answer the call. Keep your word. Be grateful. Be humble. Do the work. Don't complain. Be a loyal friend. And most important, love, always love.
 
Love for God, who surely knew His scrappy and intensely loyal creation was going to be one of His more colorful and effective apostles, especially among men. Jeff followed the advice of St. Francis of Assisi: “Preach the Gospel at all times; when necessary, use words.” His character, first formed by his family, was forged in fire at Camp Deerwoode in Brevard. Under the tough love of proprietor Bill Mayes, Jeff learned the old-school values - integrity, discipline, bravery, honor, loyalty, accountability and love – that made him the indispensable man he became. 
 
Love for his Children, Olivia Laurel Guillebeau and Evan Jeffrey Guillebeau, who have lost a father but not his legacy or his lessons, and certainly not his love, which is no less accessible now. Strong though he was, they saw their father’s gentleness. This was perhaps Jeff’s most important Deerwoode takeaway, best expressed in the words of St. Francis de Sales: "Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength." Evan and Olivia know their dad was strong for them and gentle for them because they were the most important people in his life. Jeff’s understanding of the importance of living an other-directed life was at the heart of his Christian journey.  
 
Love for his Brothers - for there were no male friends with Jeff, only brothers - not least those incredibly fortunate few on his beloved Campos, a fellowship of men hand-picked by Jeff to hone lessons first learned at Deerwoode. 
 
Perhaps Jeff’s greatest legacy to us who remain is he taught us how to leave no important thing unsaid to the ones you love. We find comfort drawing on that good counsel, and honor his legacy by practicing it always in his memory. Love is a choice, an act of the will. Choose it, do it, show it and say it.   

Jeff was made by God who is Love itself, and Jeff returns to God, human love back to Divine Love, time unto eternity, scarred heart to Sacred Heart, where surely he has heard from his Savior these very words: You have loved as I intended. Well done, my good and faithful servant..