When Ryan C. “Stack” Clark smiled his eyes twinkled. You can just tell from looking at photos of him that he loved life, loved people. Something about the look on his face made you think, this would be a good guy to know.
I never heard of Ryan Clark before Tuesday, but as the tragic events unfolded on the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, he was one of he first of the slain students identified. A resident dorm adviser, he was gunned down after going to help someone else. A member of the Marching Virginians, he was a band guy.
In his honor, fellow band members wore their uniforms to the Tuesday memorial convocation on Virginia Tech campus. Visit www.music.vt.edu/performance/ensembles/mv/index.shtml to see Clark’s winning smile and read a tribute to him from band mates.
Last December the Martinez, Georgia, native marched in the Chick-Fil-A Bowl in Atlanta, Georgia, when the Hokies played Georgia.
According to The Washington Post, he was a band guy whose “favorite place in the world was Camp Big Heart, a summer spot in Fort Yargo State Park in Winder, Ga." For eight years he spent two weeks at the camp for mentally impaired children as a volunteer counselor and then as music director.
In addition to playing in the band, Ryan had three majors. He was looking toward a career in neurosurgery after graduation, his twin brother Bryan Clark told the newspaper.
A band guy. A good guy.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution www.ajc.com/search/content/metro/stories/2007/04/17/0417metclark.html
wrote that Ryan was a well-liked student whose musical tastes segued from Korn to Bob Marley to Kenny G to Aqua. He enjoyed helping others rehearse their band routines
A band guy. A good guy.
I started my career as a newspaper reporter, and as a reporter I sometimes had to do jobs I dreaded. I did them because I felt it was important to get information to people. I was polite, empathetic, and not pushy.
Once editors assigned me to write a story about a teenage girl who was killed in an auto accident. A drunk driver struck her car and she died instantly. I was given the assignment of fleshing out her brief life story.
How can I do this? I thought as I dialed the parents. I identified myself as reporter from my newspaper and braced for silence, sobbing on the other end of the phone or just “click!” And that have been ok.
Come over, her father said quietly, and we will tell you about her. And so I did. I spent a couple of hours talking with her parents and other relatives, reading poems she wrote, looking at photos of her as a child, photos of her in—her band uniform. She played the flute.
They talked to me because they wanted me to know who she was, how special she was. They wanted me to tell other people how special she was, and I did. I felt honored to do so.
I hadn’t thought of that experience for a while, but the stories that others told about Ryan Clark reminded me. I know his passing leaves a hole in so many lives, in the world at large. Whatever else he was, he was a band guy. And that was a great thing.
During my time at MENC, I have talked with countless music teachers and music students. At the risk of over-generalizing, I have to say that I find music people to be caring, sharing people. There is something about music, about collaborating to create music that makes people feel connected, feel more a part of the whole.
In my humble opinion, without music, the making and sharing of music, our society would become even more unglued than it sometimes seems. Thanks to all of you band and orchestra and chorus guys and gals out there. You are doing good work on many, many levels.
Around the MENC Water Cooler
This has been a sad week around MENC. Even though Blacksburg is about a four-hour drive from Reston, Virginia, where MENC is located, Virginia Tech looms large here. There are staffers here who attended Virginia Tech. Many of us also have friends who attended the university, neighbors whose kids go to school there now. A few of us even know someone who knows someone else who was close to one of the victims.
One of the things that took my mind to another place this week was the following story. Music has such healing, rejuvenating properties:
Normally when Joshua Bell performs in Washington DC, it is on stage at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The renowned violinist who just won the Avery Fisher Prize for classical music, and performs more than 200 dates annually for adoring fans around the world, played an unexpected 40-minute gig in January— the L’Enfant Plaza subway stop in Washington.
Why? It was at the request of Gene Weingarten, a columnist for The Washington Post, who wondered what happens when people encounter music in unexpected places.
What was the reaction from morning rush hour commuters, and did he make any money?
To hear Bell discuss his experience visit www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9521098. Visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040401721.html?referrer=emailarticle to read Weingarten's piece and to hear audio of Bell's performance.
MENC already knew Bell was a good sport. He recorded a May 2004 “Why Music?” MENC PSA touting the importance of music education. Visit www.menc.org/psa for more information.
See you next Thursday.
RF
