Just as I felt a resurgence early this morning for getting the extra hour of sleep, I was knocked down with a message from a dear friend that one of my few best buddies had passed yesterday. I met Drew Halevy in our graduate education program at the University of Arkansas and we bonded quickly. We were like-minded in many ways, but Drew was always blazing his own path. One of the most intelligent, matter-of-factual kind of guys I have ever met. He never seemed to have much patience with complacency or with others who seemed to lack inspiration which I believe is partly why he had such a drive to teach. I feel terribly guilty that I was so self-absorbed with all of my personal battles and tribulations that I did not spend more time with Drew when he was still here in Arkansas. As my lifes ship started to right itself, Drew had moved on to Texas to pursue his teaching career where I KNOW he had a profound influence on so many who both knew it and many who will not realize it until later. Drew was sort of a modern Renaissance man with some bizarre character traits. He would be equally comfortable discussing the design modifications of the P-40 Warhawk over the course of WWII or arguing why Kool & the Gang was the quintessential party band. He had so much more to offer all of us. I feel so deeply saddened for Max and Dianna Halevy. I unfortunately didnt get to know Max as he was growing into a young man, but I know he is Drews mini-me and that he should be nothing but proud of his father in so many ways. Before Max was born, Drew was thoughtful of others children. Always the teacher before he was a teacher, Drew knew that it was important for kids to be exposed to books, history, and tools for learning. Not long after my son, Nathan Boudreaux, was born, Drew gave him a 5-gallon bucket of LEGO blocks. These were the old-school LEGO blocks...small...and not really for an infant or toddler. Drew knew what he was doing despite the odd, seemingly inappropriate gift. I didnt realize at the time, but Drew was a member of the LEGO club and had been collecting them for years. He didnt have to do that, but he knew that Nathan would someday benefit and that was more important to Drew than his prideful collection. He was right. Nathan (and I) spent countless hours with those blocks over his formative years (and countless middle-of-the-night stepping on those sharp little bastards...thanks Drewbah!). When Nathan was around 5, Drew (knowing that Nathan was getting into the things Drew and I loved...airplanes and history) just gave him an entire collection of tapes on every known warbird of WWII. I couldnt have afforded to do that on my own for my son. When Drew and I worked together, we were lunch buddies. That carried on until he left for Texas long after our working-together days passed. It was always, Lets go get steaks. I didnt know what he always ate for dinner, but it sure seemed to me in our relationship that the only thing he EVER ate was steak and bread. We would trade off who bought and he knew that my resources were limited, so he continued to insist that even if it were my turn to buy, we were going anyway and he would take care of it. I would be like, Dude...we could just go get buffet pizza or something. But he would have none of it...steaks or nothing. I last saw Drew in person on June 18, 2013 while on a training trip to Dallas. We had steaks. Of course. He bought and it was my turn to buy next time around and we were way overdue. Ill miss Drews random phone calls about random topics. Since he knew I was a music guy, he would throw out these random things...the last one, if I recall: [ring] Me: Sup, Drewbah. Drew: So, what if you took the entire Beatles catalog and changed the rhythm to all reggae. I bet you could make hits with that. Me: Well...probably. Drew: Or...say you got Snoop Dogg and Grand Master Flash together and had them rap the lyrics to Lynard Skynard songs... Somebody would buy that, right? Me: Uh...are you ok? I am not sure if he was constantly looking for a get-rich-scheme in music but I was always afraid that if I encouraged his out-of-your-mind thoughts that he might actually act on them somehow. He always made suggestions to me that my band should play something so far out of our genre it would make me laugh. Drew had a pretty encyclopedic knowledge of music as evidenced by his frequent posts on Facebook with screenshots of what he was driving along to in his car. Drew will be missed by so many. His students will no doubt always remember him as that one teacher I had. He was that guy. Inspiring by doing, making you think by thinking out loud, making you question by questioning, and being thoughtful without even realizing it. He always told me to pursue my doctorate despite the fact that I have no use for one in my world anymore. He didnt care. He said, Get it anyway. You need to keep inspiring yourself to keep learning. He is right, of course. Probably will never have the sticktoitiveness to even dream of going back to college again, but Ill heed his advice. I would always seek him out when I found something trivial or new. We all need people like that in our lives. So, today...I will celebrate a good guy who inspired me to keep learning. Ill probably go have a steak for lunch in his honor. And today, I will cry for Dianna and Max and hope they find peace in knowing how positively impactful Drews life was on others. I am pretty sure Drew wont be resting in peace...hell be too busy.
Posted on: Mon, 03 Nov 2014 16:23:51 +0000
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