MEMBER SPOTLIGHT | FEBRUARY 2022 (Bob Brams)
We have many great members at WIBN, but none are more impressive than Bob Brams. While Bob is a member of our Delaware Chapter and a board member, he has also been extremely helpful in contributing to the growth of wrestling in many ways. As a trusted confidant and advisor to the NWCA, he has facilitated countless introductions with business leaders, academic influencers and administrators, and other key individuals.
What is unique about Bob is his story and the true impact that wrestling has had on his life. Bob recognizes that the values he learned from wrestling helped him achieve professional success. He rose up the ranks to become a partner in one of the most prestigious law firms in the world. However, it is wrestling’s impact on his personal life that may have had the greatest value. Over the past six years, Bob has battled brain cancer and he credits the determination and grit required by wrestling as helping him persevere and survive. Bob’s story is truly inspirational and a short account appears below. Bob’s book is widely accredited and was recently named the #43 best book on cancer in the world by BookAuthority.org. His book was also ranked as #1 by Amazon as a Hot New Release in wrestling biographies. It is being sold and distributed worldwide by Simon and Schuster.
A New Book About…Finding the Best in Wrestling and Life!
Join a high-powered lawyer on his fight for life against brain cancer and his continuing efforts to remain Forever Optimistic.
At age fifty-five, Robert Brams, a former college athlete, was in perfect health. Bob is blessed with a beautiful family, including his wife and two children, now college graduates. He has a circle of close friends and a hard-driving international law practice as partner at one of the most prestigious firms in Washington, DC. In his youth, Bob wrestled in middle school, high school and college as did his son. As a lawyer, he served as counsel to USA Wrestling in its successful effort to bring wrestling back into the Olympics.
However, a fateful car accident, leading to an MRI scan revealed a shadow on his brain that suddenly shattered his carefully constructed life. Brams was diagnosed with brain cancer—one of the most overwhelming challenges a person can ever face. Of course, the accident did not cause the tumor, but it led to finding the problem, as Brams was totally asymptomatic. Newly diagnosed, what would the future hold for Bob Brams and his family?
Brams has been through six extraordinary years—four hospitals, two brain surgeries, a seizure, a stroke, a coma, life support, ICUs, radiation and chemotherapy, various rehab regimens, a finding of hemophilia, years of therapy and countless MRIs. With all this, Brams was described as a “Catastrophic Loss” and the sickest person on the ICU. Fighting serious complications, Brams was given only a 1% chance of surviving. Brams credits the values he learned from wrestling as being what he leaned on to stay alive.
Despite all that’s happened, Brams is still right here with us in the fight, and he is determined to achieve an important purpose—to help beat brain cancer. While he is no longer practicing law, his continuing struggles have caused him to reprioritize his values and change his perspective on what really matters in life.
Having stood at death’s door and now confronted with an uncertain prognosis and regular MRIs for life, Brams’s insights on life, love, family, education, business, and finding your passion take on a distinctive power and clarity. Readers from every walk of life looking for inspiration and motivation will find it in Brams’s remarkable story.
Struggles, setbacks, and failures in his youth and beyond were indeed troubling, but with hard work, determination and optimism, Brams found his best path and ultimately succeeded. Bob reminds us that it’s not where you start, but rather where you finish. Despite all that has happened, Brams is still happy and he’s appreciative for all the great things that have happened in his life and will happen, like the weddings of his two children and grandchildren to come. He appreciates that there is still so much to live for!
Inspiring, powerful, and eminently readable, Brams’s book, Forever Optimistic: Fighting Brain Cancer, Finding Your Best Path, and Leading a Life With Purpose is by turns moving, humorous, and brimming with hard-won wisdom. The Book’s forward is by US Senator Chris Coons, and among other top endorsers from his professional life, Bob’s book has been endorsed by Olympic Gold Medalist in wrestling, Kyle Snyder. Brams’s story is one of remarkable courage, faith and miracles in the face of tragedy.
Brams’s efforts to help fight brain cancer are supported by a number of the top physicians in the world from Johns Hopkins Medicine, the University of California San Francisco Medical Center and the National Institutes of Health. Bob is also grateful for all of his kind donors, including WIBN and his incredible prayer team, and support in so many ways, all of whom are listed on his website at www.1MBBC.com. At this same website, please consider donating to Brams’s fight cancer cause and join the published list of donors. Brams definitely appreciates that it will take a village to achieve his new passion!
Brams Bio:
Robert S. Brams practiced law for over thirty years, including as a partner in the Washington, DC offices of Patton Boggs and Greenberg Traurig. In both firms, he served as either a practice group chair or co-chair of the Real Estate, Government Contracts and Construction Projects groups. He handled development matters, as well as claims and disputes around the world on major infrastructure projects, frequently in the Middle East. He served as lead counsel on the Hurricane Katrina and the Super Storm Sandy cleanup projects. He has handled matters involving dams, tunnels, airports, bridges, railways, corporate headquarters, as well as disputes arising on the Big Dig project in Boston. He was a frequent author and lecturer on a variety of infrastructure development issues. He has been recognized as a “Best Lawyer” by various organizations and publications, and identified as an “Eminent Practitioner” by Chambers, the leading publication ranking top lawyers in the world.