Before passing, this professor wrote postcards to 100 favorite people — they arrived after his death

A college professor who spent decades teaching design and architecture decided to skip a traditional memorial and leave behind something far more personal. Before his death, Don Glickman asked his daughter to mail postcards to more than 100 people he cared about most, including former students, each carrying a message he wrote himself. The postcards began arriving weeks after Glickman died in November 2025 at age 94, as per The Washington Post. On the front was a photo of him wearing a hoodie and yellow aviator sunglasses. Printed beneath it was a short message that caught recipients off guard: "If you’re reading this, I’m dead, and I really liked you."

"It was the last thing I expected," said Jason Snape, one of Don's former students, to The Washington Post. "It made me laugh really hard because it was just so him." What made it even more surreal, Snape added, "Everyone along the way saw a postcard that said, 'I’m dead and I really liked you.'" Snape, who met Don in the late 1980s, said his former professor shaped how he approached both teaching and creative problem-solving. "He is easily the biggest reason I was better at teaching than anything else I’ve done," he said. "Despite his blunt death notice, delivered in bold Helvetica font alongside a scowling selfie (which he chose himself), Glickman, it seems, liked a lot of people," reports CBS.

The idea for the postcards emerged in the summer before Don died, during a conversation at his home in Anacortes, Washington. By that point, he was in home hospice care due to congestive heart failure, though his daughter said his mind remained sharp. "He was an incredibly talented designer, but teaching is what made him feel loved," Leah told The Washington Post. When she asked how he wanted to be memorialized, he was clear that he did not want a funeral. She floated a few alternatives, including a small gathering or even an ice cream party. Then, mostly as a joke, she suggested sending postcards, and Don immediately locked onto the idea.

After his death, Leah worked with a graphic designer friend to produce the postcards. She wrote a personalized message on the back of each one and stamped it with a small sketch of her father drawn years earlier by his best friend, which she described as his longtime sign-off. "After 94 years on this planet, my dad has departed," she wrote. "His last days were filled with butter pecan ice cream, flamenco music, a view he adored, and the love he finally accepted." She added, "In a last act of design and Glickman ethos, he asked that this postcard be created, photo and text chosen by him." The first batch of postcards went out around Christmastime, and so far, she has mailed about 110 postcards and says she plans to send more as additional names come to mind. "You knew if he liked you," she said.

As recipients began receiving the postcards, several shared photos of them online. Snape posted an image of his postcard resting over his sketchbook on Instagram, alongside a note about his former professor. "I hope you all had a teacher like him," he wrote. "They set us on our way — a way we didn’t even know existed." A friend of a friend reposted it on X, where it reached more than 1.5 million views. 

Leah said she was surprised by how many people chose to make their postcards public. Messages continued to come in from recipients who said they were framing them, saving them, or keeping them as reminders of a teacher who had seen them early in their careers. Research suggests that gestures like these can shape how people experience grief. In one study of nearly 300 recently widowed adults, those who reported higher levels of humor and positive emotion during bereavement also tended to have lower grief and depression scores. Leah said she believes her father would have been amused by the response. "I think, despite his not wanting attention ever, he would love this," she said.

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