Library Receives Leukemia Victim’s Legacy : Memorials: Signed copies of 14 Ray Bradbury works that were favorites of an Agoura High School senior who died a year ago are given to the campus.

A week before Brett Ingram died, the Agoura High School senior received a book in the mail from his favorite author, Ray Bradbury.

Ingram, who by then knew he was about to lose his 2 1/2-year battle with leukemia, lifted the book he would never finish and shrugged, telling a friend, “I hate when a good story is over.”

Ingram, 18, died a year ago Saturday. About 50 of his friends gathered at the school library Monday to dedicate the Brett Ingram Collection of Ray Bradbury works to commemorate the young man’s love of the arts and brave struggle for life.

“He made me value life a lot,” said Ingram’s former girlfriend, Judy Williamson. “He knew he was going to die, but he never gave up. He kept putting it off to some time in the future.”

The 14-volume collection of Bradbury books, donated and signed by the science fiction author, was especially important to Ingram, said Nan Cano, his former English teacher. Cano wrote a letter to Bradbury because of Ingram’s love of his work, and the author spent several hours with her and Ingram over a lunch in Beverly Hills in February, 1988.

Cano said the three became friends and exchanged letters in the months before Ingram died. Bradbury--who has written works including “The Martian Chronicles” and “Fahrenheit 451”--advised Ingram to “always write,” Cano said.

“Brett asked whether he could still be a writer even though he got Cs on some of his essays,” Cano said. “But fortunately Ray told him that essays were only one kind of writing.”

Ingram’s deteriorating health forced him to stop attending school shortly before Christmas vacation his senior year. But he refused to give up his English class. Cano agreed to tutor him after school and guide him through the writing of a senior thesis on Bradbury’s work.

In the subsequent months, the student and teacher became close friends. Ingram went on to complete his senior thesis, which earned him an A.

“He was the kindest, most gracious, bravest man I ever met,” said Cano of her former student. “I loved him.”

Ingram’s friends said he was outgoing, a Billy Joel fan and a bright student who was good at computer work and drama. He thought of becoming a paramedic, a writer or an actor. He attended the annual Renaissance Pleasure Faire clad in a monk’s habit, a hood covering his head, which became bald after treatments for cancer, said the boy’s former drama teacher, John Kilpatrick.

Ingram’s younger brother, Darrin, now a senior at Agoura Hills High School, said he idolized his brother. His mother, Barbara, said her son adored the creative worlds of acting and writing. The book collection is intended to continue that spirit and offer encouragement to high school students suffering the seemingly insurmountable problems of growing up, she said.

“High school kids see their life at its bleakest,” Barbara Ingram said. “But if only one child in the next 10 years can get some inspiration, maybe turn their life around, it will be worth it.”

That may have already happened. A former classmate of Brett Ingram’s who attended the dedication said afterwards that the courage of his friend--who refused pain medication in the last days of his life--made a big impression.

“I’ve been drug-free for over a year because of Brett,” the young man said.