One year ago today exactly.
No one will ever replace him.
But my soul and his soul will meet again one day, and upon that day we will reunite for eternity. Until then, I live my life in a way that would please him. I am a good person, a good human, a good mother, wife, daughter, sister, aunt, cousin, niece, friend. I will lift myself up, I will raise myself to the heights he had hoped I would achieve. How blessed am I that I was able to call him dad. This was the picture I shared when he passed. I said, "He's off and flying." And he was. Yes! He was! With the Angels by his side. Loving him and missing him today, everyday, always.
S.
When a member of our Class of 1981 quit after just five weeks, Dr. Colladay was one of the few people who had kind and sympathetic words for him. Too many professors and students just had comments about how someone else could have been admitted instead. As I recall, Dr. Tom told us stories about how he had made changes along the way also before he found his niche at MCO/FSCO.
ReplyDeleteDear Ted, I love to hear these stories. This one sounds exactly like what I would expect. He was very accepting of others, really appreciated people for who they were. He would support your dreams and encourage you to explore who you were. He did have changes in his original plans in life.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was an only child. In hopes of never letting them down, you excel, you surpass what others may do. My dad was a very good student. He took a lot of pride in his grades. He was "best dressed" in his high school class as well as his academic fraternity in college. One of his parent's closest friends and one of his closest friends was Dr. Rawlings, and the brother-in-law to C.S. Mott. Not only did my dad respect him but so did his parents. I think this is where his decision to become an M.D. began. Behind the academic scenes however, he was just a very caring person. People knew him to be the one who would listen, with a quiet demeanor, he would share his opinions and insights, but always encourage others. He was president of the french club. He loved french. He loved France. He went to France two or three times. His mother was Canadian and she never became a us citizen so he was half Canadian. He lost his closest uncle in WWII who died in Normandy France. a couple trips he went to the U.S. cemetery there in Normandy with a bucket of wet sand, they spread the wet sand across the white head stone, and the name shows up. So amazing, but for my dad, So very heart wrenching. He had a deep soul and but a very burdened heart for those in his family. His mother was an orphan. Both parent's died before she was six years old. She lost her father in WWI a Canadian who joined the United States Army and died in war. Her mother to Ovarian cancer. She was one of 5 children, raised by an Aunt and Uncle who did not want children and had none of their own. It wasn't a good situation so my dad hurt for his mother's loss. For her sister's loss when his Uncle died. Anyway, he decided to become a M.D. and enrolled in school at Flint U of M and did his undergraduate classes. He was accepted into the U of M medical school and put in a couple of years before deciding, he could not experience people's sickness, or possible death. He felt too much for others. It would pull at his heart strings just too much and I think he felt like a failure pulling back from medical school. As if he had disappointed his parents and Dr. Rawlings. Although, Dr. Rawlings told him, he completely understood and could relate to the helpless feelings doctors experience losing patients to sickness.
He continued on at U of M and became a Medical physiologist. He graduated from U of M Phi Beta Kappa. He excelled in school and in his field and he loved the choice he made, however the fact that he didn't become an M.D. I think always bothered him. He went to Indiana University and achieved his PH.D. Anyway, he did find his niche. He did have adjust his path and set his sights on a new horizon. I miss him. He taught me so much, more than he ever knew or realized. He was an extremely deep thinker. He loved to read. He loved movies.
He was a wonderful sailor and he and my mom actually built themselves a sailboat. He was an excellent golfer. He always said, if golf paid what it does now back when he was in his teens and twenty's he'd have tried going pro. He scored 27 on 9 holes, many times. He was that good. I'd watch him in awe. He was a wonderful father. He was adventuresome.
He did change after my mother and he divorced. My mother divorced my dad and I don't think he was ever ok after that. Even though he remarried, he never wanted my mother to divorce him. Begged her not to. I wish that hadn't happened. His grand father, his namesake. He experienced a lot of interesting, grand and privileged experiences.
Anyway, a little bit of memory lane for me, thank you. Your note prompted this and I have smiled and cried while I've written. I miss him terribly. All the best.
Sarah
Bits and pieces of the University of Michigan, both Flint and Ann Arbor, stories, I had heard before, but never this complete. And I had forgotten some details. I'm glad you filled in the missing pieces. Some information was from conversations I had with Dr. Colladay, and some was from conversations my Mother had with Jack Colladay at Chevrolet Plant 4 Master Mechanics/Engineering. The people there always talked about their children a lot, they were very proud of them, and many of them were very successful, PhDs, MDs/DOs, JDs/Lawyers and Judges, etc. This is very unexpected from the national picture many have of Flint today, and the books and movies people have written and made about Flint recently, and all the recent water crisis stories.
ReplyDeleteHere are a couple other coincidences to note.
At the very different times when Dr. Tom and I went to UM-AA, we lived on the same street, Newport Road. I think he lived at 960 Newport Rd. and I was at 1200 Newport Rd. for one year where I rented a room.
You mentioned the C.S. Mott connection. Singer Linda Ronstadt's Mother and Grandparents lived in Flint on Calumet St., quite near where your Great Grandparents lived on East 8th St., and your Grandparents lived on Chandler St. Linda Ronstadt's Grandfather was Lloyd Copeman, a prolific Inventor with 700+ patents. His most famous invention was probably the Electric Stove. He also had many Automotive Manufacturing patents. Lloyd Copeman was a close friend of Charles Stewart Mott, and Mr. Mott vacationed with the Copemans in Tucson, AZ, where they met the Ronstadts.
Cindy and I were at a Continuing Educational Seminar in Birmingham, MI a few days ago with several others from our Class of 1981 at MCO/FCSO. All of us remembered how much we liked Dr. Colladay, and were so sad also to hear of his passing.
As for the student who left after five weeks, he landed on his feet, and is probably better known than the rest of us for all the news stories he has been quoted from over the last several years. He and Dr. Colladay both have a large collection of work related videos they made during their careers, which will be treasured by their descendants.
Dr. Ted Hammond
I was looking up some of the other "Children of Plant 4 Master Mechanics Department" online. Besides Dr. Tom Colladay, there are at least two other PhDs, one at MIT, one at Caltech. There are at least two DOs I could think of, and two attorneys, one another "Jack" with a son "Tom", with a last name starting with C!
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