Babak "Armi" Armajani '68

Babak Armajani, co-founder and head of the influential Public Strategies Group, died unexpectedly Monday at his organization's St. Paul offices. He was 66....

Wrote Armajani of his work: "Our services are focused on a small segment of public organizations: those that have concluded that the bureaucratic system has run its course and that transformational change is the only viable long-term strategy for dealing with increasing demands for service and decreasing resources."

There was far more to Armajani, however, than big government thoughts.

He was the father of four, a proud grandfather and, like many, an oft-frustrated golfer.

"Would that I could make a living while on the golf course,'' he wrote recently. "But alas, my devotion to the game far exceeds my skill.''

He loved woodworking. The ideal vacation to the graduate of St. Paul Central, Grinnell (Iowa) College and Princeton University was a canoe trip in the Boundary Waters.

But people such as the mourning Otis think of him mostly as "the most kind and generous friend.''