Brian Rozelle dies; spokesman for Cycle for Survival, Giants fan

Brian Rozelle, an activist for cancer awareness who died of the disease April 6, 2015, in Palo Alto. Brian Rozelle, an activist for cancer awareness who died of the disease April 6, 2015, in Palo Alto. Photo: Courtesy Of Scott Rozelle / Courtesy Of Scott Rozelle Photo: Courtesy Of Scott Rozelle / Courtesy Of Scott Rozelle Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Brian Rozelle dies; spokesman for Cycle for Survival, Giants fan 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

Brian Rozelle had a form of cancer that only 1 in 100,000 people get. He said it made him feel lucky.

Most people who contract bile duct cancer feel something besides luck. But Mr. Rozelle, who died Monday at age 30, spent the last three years of his life determined to get his licks in and to let the cancer know whom it was dealing with.

Mr. Rozelle, a health club membership salesman from Palo Alto, climbed on one of his club’s stationary bikes three years ago and soon became a national spokesman for Cycle for Survival, an annual indoor cycling event to raise money to fight the disease growing inside of him.

In February, he participated in his third fundraiser, pedaling stationary bikes in San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, inspiring hundreds of participants and helping to raise $20 million for Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

“He never said, 'Why me?’” said his father, Stanford University economics Professor Scott Rozelle. “He would say if anybody gets cancer, it ought to be him. He knew how to live with it.”

A native of Oakland and a graduate of UC Davis, Mr. Rozelle was an ardent Giants fan who vowed that his cancer would not prevent him from attending the 2012 World Series games in Detroit. There, when cheering for a Giants home run amid a sea of less-than-happy Tigers fans, he was befriended by Giants President Larry Baer.

“It was such a great gift to see his joyful spirit,” Baer said. “You just couldn’t believe how optimistic he was, and how much he loved the Giants and how he was able to put all of his challenges to the side.”

When the Giants returned to the World Series last year, Mr. Rozelle was an on-field participant in the Stand Up to Cancer campaign. At the series victory parade, the team invited Mr. Rozelle to ride in the procession.

“People react to a cancer diagnosis in a variety of ways,” he wrote at the time. “My mantra has been, 'I fight not for fear of dying but for the joy of living.’”

Mr. Rozelle died on the Giants’ Opening Day of the 2015 season, in his home in Palo Alto. By his side was a baseball signed by every member of the 2014 world champion Giants.

He is survived by his father and his stepmother, Leying Jiang of Palo Alto; his mother, Yu-hwa Rozelle of Fremont; his brother, Whalen Rozelle of Santa Monica; a stepbrother, Wan Wan of Brooklyn, N.Y.; and his fiancee, Sue Novik of San Carlos.

A private memorial celebration will be held Saturday at AT&T Park where, Scott Rozelle said, no one may wear black unless it’s in combination with orange, the Giants’ colors.

Steve Rubenstein is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: srubenstein@sfchronicle.com