11:45 p.m. - 2016-05-14
Patrick M.
One of the most important teachers from my college years died this week. Even tho I haven't seen him in 20 years, his is one of the voices I always carry with me.
I remember how he pointed and laughed at me my freshman year when I was still figuring out things all college kids quickly figure out- how much alcohol is too much alcohol. I came in one Saturday morning to work on some set- probably 3 sisters- and I was positively green. He pointed and laughed at me and i promptly spun on my heel to sprint down the hall to vomit and when I returned he said something like 'vomiting always makes it better'.
He taught me the value of making a cut list. How to properly mark a piece of wood so when you're cutting it on a saw, the kerf doesn't throw off your measurements.
He taught me how to really be a carpenter. He handed me a welder's mask to watch a full solar eclipse from the loading dock of the scene shop. When I showed up for a final in stagecraft where I would have to demonstrate I knew what I was doing, he was genuinely surprised to see me. "what are you doing here?" he asked me. "I..uh...i have my final". "get out of here. I know you're good".
I'm not exaggerating when I say i think about that moment probably weekly. It really meant a lot.
He was a feminist, treating everyone equally. He smoked in his tiny office overlooking the scene shop. (Don't smoke. ever. Just don't. And if you do, quit. Please)
When you were stumped with a problem and he was equally stumped his answer was a clockwork "Shit man, I don't know..."
But more than that Patrick and his wife Mary would open up their house to the students for proxy family dinners. Particularly on holidays for students who couldn't get home. I spent a number of Easter's at their house. That family was unlike mine. They were a unit. They loved. They taught. They welcomed everyone in and you became part of the extended family.
It's kind of unreal Patrick is gone. Til we meet again Patrick....I hope you have a cup of Sheetz coffee in your hand, wherever you are.

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