Gasner wrote "My Friends Call Me Gaz" over the summer of 2025. He has since moved from writing it to getting it in front of readers, with speaking engagements and other outreach now underway. The book is meant to offer "perseverance and inspiration when dealing with the challenges of life and the grief that often time comes with them," he said, especially for men, who aren't always encouraged to talk about their hardships and grief.
Gasner lives in Eden Prairie and teaches business at Kennedy. He has more than 30 years in education and used to coach high school football. He's a husband, a father of 3 grown children and a grandfather.
The story starts in Rochester, where Gasner grew up with 5 siblings. After his parents divorced and his father remarried, the household became a blended family. His mother was diagnosed with bipolar depression in the 1970s. In the 1980s, his sister was murdered by an ex-boyfriend. Much later, Gasner became a caregiver as both of his parents developed dementia. Last year his brother, an orthopedic surgeon in Orlando, died by suicide during a divorce.
That's heavy material, and the book doesn't pretend otherwise. But it isn't grim from start to finish. Gasner mixes the hard chapters with humor, including a story about 5 high school friends and a wager over marriage. He spent the summer at the keyboard instead of playing his usual golf or working his seasonal job, and he has said the writing was therapeutic for him.
He traces the approach back to lessons from his own football coaches growing up. It's a kind of leadership he carried into his own coaching and teaching at Kennedy, built on stories and lived experience more than a standard playbook. The message, he says, is to dust yourself off and get back up.
"My Friends Call Me Gaz" is out now on Amazon in hardcover, paperback and digital formats. Ordering details and a contact address for the author are at dangasner.com. Its core message is a simple one: you are not alone.
