When Brent Burkhardt was diagnosed with brain cancer last year, he didn’t know how much time he had, but he knew how he wanted to spend it.

He reconnected with old colleagues at the Baltimore-based creative agency TBC. He invited friends over for crab cakes made using his late wife’s famed recipe. He visited his daughter and her family in New Jersey, fighting to make it to the birth of his second grandchild.

Burkhardt knew how to live intentionally, loved ones said. In the years before his diagnosis, he was an avid traveler, crabber, concertgoer and sports fan. He spent his professional life as a storyteller, elevating brands and helping share their missions through media coverage and other means.

“Brent was an incredibly talented PR professional, and he was old school,” said Andrea Lynn, a friend and TBC colleague. “He really knew how to make a story pitch come alive and was very persuasive. ... There are many local newsrooms out there familiar with the name Brent Burkhardt, that’s for sure.”

Burkhardt, also the co-founder of Choptank Communications, where he’d worked for the past decade-plus, died Dec. 29 at his home on the Eastern Shore. He was 63.

He was born June 3, 1962, and spent his early years in Western Maryland. His older brother, Mark Burkhardt, was 7 years old when his brother came along, and he stubbornly told his parents not to bring home a girl.

His mother, Eleanor Mae Weibley, went into labor on a Sunday morning. His father, the Rev. Albert Ray Burkhardt, dropped her off at the hospital and then led two services at the Lutheran church he founded.

“Brent came into the world making some noise,” Mark Burkhardt said.

One of Brent’s first loves was watching sports, his brother said. From the time he was 6 or 7, he’d turn on just about any baseball, football or basketball game, professional or college. He had something of an “encyclopedic memory” when it came to players’ names and statistics, Mark Burkhardt said.

He wasn’t so much of a player, though he dabbled in softball. He always seemed to injure himself when he played sports, his brother said, so he enjoyed them from the sidelines.

Brent asked his parents to buy a Sports Illustrated subscription, and the brothers fought over who’d get to read the magazines first when they came in the mail. Mark thinks this is where Brent’s eventual career in communications began, as he considered becoming a sports journalist.

The Burkhardts moved to Ellicott City when Brent was about 10, and it allowed him to attend games in nearby Baltimore. The move also brought the brothers closer to their grandparents, and Brent learned to fish and crab from his grandfather.

After graduating from Centennial High School, Brent Burkhardt earned a journalism degree from West Virginia University, where he was an editor of the student newspaper. A career in public relations was a natural fit for someone as social and fun-loving as Brent, his brother said. He saw late-night calls or PR hiccups “as a professional challenge,” Mark Burkhardt said.

He started as a public information officer for Baltimore’s tourism office. While there, he planned citywide events and helped promote the Inner Harbor as a destination.

He also met his wife, Andrea Vernot, then a colleague in the tourism office.

They were both pragmatic, no-nonsense people who shared a love of adventure, said their daughter, Alex Burkhardt. They decided to get married one day over lunch, agreeing that they’d found their best friend in one another.

Alex was born a few years later. Her parents had busy work schedules, but her dad always made the time to take her to school and explore their love of music together. When she was a sophomore in high school, he took her and a friend to see Coldplay — one of many concerts they attended together through the years.

“He was always thoughtful, meticulous, inquisitive and caring,” Alex Burkhardt said.

The family also looked forward to traveling together every year. Brent Burkhardt would plan “epic vacations,” his daughter said, including a hiking trip in Peru and a Christmas celebration in Tuscany. He visited 22 countries throughout his life, enjoying learning about history and other cultures.

Brent Burkhardt joined TBC in 1989 and stayed for 35 years, making him one its longest-serving employees. He represented several local institutions, including Under Armour, Towson University and the Maryland Stadium Authority, as well as national brands like Harrah’s Entertainment, Penn National Gaming and MinuteClinic at CVS Pharmacy.

In 1992, Burkhardt led the team that won a national award for a public relations campaign advertising the different ways to travel to Camden Yards during the ballpark’s opening season.

“Brent had a rare gift: the ability to see potential,” said Nichole Baccala Ward, the CEO and owner of TBC. “His work did more than earn media coverage; it created cultural relevance.”

Burkhardt was just as good of a colleague as he was a communicator, former coworkers said. He loved chatting with peers and hearing updates on their lives almost as much as he loved sharing stories about his wife and daughter, said Aaron Smith, the creative production director at TBC.

His reputation at the agency was one of loyalty, honesty and integrity, he said.

“It wasn’t just that he would do something because it was what he had to do,” Smith said. “It was always what was the right thing to do. And if he felt something was not right, he would push back, which is a rare thing.”

In 2012, Brent and Andrea decided to launch their own public relations firm, Choptank Communications, based in their new home on the Eastern Shore. They’d moved to spend more time together and by the water, loving that they could split the workday with a bike ride and a beautiful view. Brent also enjoyed more opportunities to crab and fish — and to bring home the haul for his wife to cook.

The couple was thrilled when their daughter told them she was pregnant a few years ago, and they upsized their home for grandkids. But tragedy struck when Andrea was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and she died in 2023.

Brent often said it was his grandson, Brooks, who got him through that time. And it was his granddaughter, Andie, who helped him find strength throughout his own cancer battle, Alex Burkhardt said. She was born in September.

Brent’s ashes will be incorporated into a reef ball with oyster spat, which will help foster new marine life in the Chesapeake Bay. It will be placed in the water next to another reef ball holding his late wife’s ashes.

A celebration of life is scheduled for Jan. 16 at 10:30 a.m. at Christ Lutheran Church.

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