Matt Wixon, owner and founder of Bookstore Movers and co-owner of Capitol Hill Books in Washington, D.C., died March 22. He was 41 years and had been diagnosed with colon cancer two years ago. DCist reported that in addition to his wife and son, Wixon "also leaves behind a community of friends, fans, and fellow readers at the D.C. institution that has been the nexus of his social and work lives since he moved to the city in the early 2000s: Capitol Hill Books.... The bookstore is a staple of the neighborhood, and Wixon had fiercely loved and championed it since he first started working there in 2004."
"Matt was... he's maybe the most amazing person I've ever known," Kyle Burk, co-owner of the bookstore along with Wixon, Aaron Beckwith and Shantanu Malkar. "Extraordinarily charming, generous, and funny. He wasn't a poet exactly, but his heart was.... He was amazing, just great at making people feel like they mattered. I just often had the thought that he was a better person than me. He was so much better at being nice to people."
Wixon, Beckwith and Burk met about 15 years ago when they were canvassing for environmental causes in the city. DCist wrote that "Beckwith took a job at Capitol Hill Books, a tiny bookstore in a rowhouse owned by a curmudgeonly former Navy admiral named Jim Toole. Wixon took a job there next, as a shelver, and Burk after that. Malkar would hang out there, too." Over the years "the men made a plan to save up enough money to eventually buy the bookstore from Toole, when he was ready to retire."
Meanwhile, Wixon started answering Craigslist ads requesting moving help and in 2005, Bookstore Movers, "named in homage to the store Wixon was trying to save up to purchase, got its unofficial start" and was officially incorporated in 2009, DCist noted. The company now employs about 90 people. In 2018, Wixon and his three friends purchased Capitol Hill Books.
Last Friday, Capitol Hill Books observed on Facebook that Wixon "was kind and supremely generous. He was the funniest person we knew. He was our best friend."
And yesterday Bookstore Movers posted: "Anyone who knew him now has a Matt-shaped hole in their heart. BUT we are determined to run his beloved company in ways that continually reflect his compassionate spirit and noble values."