Dean Richard Gustafson

Dean Gustafson

Dean Richard Gustafson, born Sept 6, 1963, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, passed away among loved ones on April 24, 2026, at the age of 62 in Seattle, Washington, after a valiant battle with ALS.

Throughout his creative and colorful life and his travels and interests, he developed his talents and skills, gathered perceptions of life, and a lot of friends.  He was truly a master Renaissance man, with a deep understanding of love of the arts, music, literature and science of ages past and present.  He chased down and sketched runestones during a trip to Sweden, rendering many into paintings.  While in Europe, he visited some of the finest art museums.  He studied fine art at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and at the Art Academy of San Francisco, where he was a favored teacher, and which gave him the technical and artistic skills to express his thoughts, imagination, and surroundings.

He had a successful career as a graphic artist for Midnight Design in the infancy of web development. Dean chanted James Joyce while walking down Haight Street with the Cacophony Society of San Francisco; studied trigonometry so that he could build his own telescope out of scratch (grinding his own mirrors) under the tutelage of John Dobson, and shared visions of the night skies with passers-by on the sidewalk; learned carpentry skills working with our brother Brian at Con:struct; he was the first drummer at the Burning Man festival and studied calculus to construct a human sun dial in the desert there; listened to Richard Wagner’s Ring Cycle, jazz, classical guitar – but most of all he loved the Beatles and the Grateful Dead. That music, and similar, was always resounding from his room. He counted time by the concerts that he visited and was extremely generous and thoughtful in sending cassettes, and later CDs, of Grateful Dead and other concerts to us that happened on our birthdays.  He was strong and could bike up to the top of Mount Tamalpais in the San Francisco Bay Area and back before breakfast.  These are only a few insights into his life.

And then it happened…

Dean had been suffering under ALS, Lou Gehrig’s disease, over the past 12 years, ultimately restricting his physical motion.  His spirit, however, was not diminished and this proved his strength and resilience, to the awe and admiration of all of us.  Once he discovered this diagnosis, he decided to move from San Francisco to San Rafael to be closer to Phil Lesh’s Terrapin Crossroads rock restaurant.  He had mapped out a route from his new digs to there in his motorized wheelchair.  He communicated freely and regularly with an eye tracking device on his computer, composing and responding to emails from friends and family and writing his memoirs and detailed essays.  One essay was about our cabin in Buffalo, Minnesota. He solicited memories from all his brothers and sisters spent there that spanned over 20 years and compiled them into one essay.  Over the decades, he had created hundreds, thousands, of sketches– many inspired by his (quite bizarre) dreams.  These past few years he decided to hold weekly contests with his friends: “Name the sketch”.  The submitted titles were as bizarre as his sketches. The winner received the framed sketch as a reward.  Dozens of his friends and family enthusiastically participated.  These two examples showed how engaged he was with all of us.  Coming up to this April, one of the staff members at Bailey-Boushay House organized an art show of his sketches in a local coffee shop.  Dean attended the show and his wide smile showed his profound appreciation.  This was a week before he contracted pneumonia and the covid virus.

Dean was preceded in death by mother, Frances; father, Donald; brother, Brian. Survived by siblings, Gary, Grant (Lory), Craig (Karen), Jill (Corey), Joni (David); nieces and nephews, Beth, Kim (Tara), Jennifer, Casey, Jesse (John), Lauren (Sebastian), Leif, Jan, Ben, Jordan, Arwen, Marion; great nieces & nephews, Henry, Greta, Derek, Dominic, Willow, Axel, Tiger Lily; the love of his life, Lenore; and his many, many friends.  We will all miss his radiance dearly.

Celebrations of his life are being held in Minneapolis, Seattle and on Mount Tamalpais.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be sent to the Bailey-Boushay House, that took such good care of him for six years:

https://connect.virginiamasonfoundation.org/bailey-boushay/donate