John and Patti McClary are keeping the memory of their daughter, Katie, alive through Kohler High School students.
The McClarys, in partnership with Johnson Bank, established the Katie McClary Memorial Scholarship at Kohler High School months after they lost their daughter in an accident when a city bus in Durham, N.C., struck her as she was walking through a crosswalk at an intersection on Sept. 11, 2004.
Katie McClary, a graduate of Duke University who was a basketball and volleyball coach at Durham Academy High School, was 25 years old when she died. “It’s so important to us that Katie be remembered not only in our hearts … this is a way to keep her passion and foster it for other students,” said Patti McClary.
The $10,000 scholarship is given to a graduating senior at Kohler and is distributed over a four-year period. Katie graduated from Kohler in 1997 and received more than $60,000 in scholarships. She not only had a strong academic rapport, she also was musically and athletically gifted. “Katie had a lot of talents, skills and abilities and really at the age of 25 was just starting to utilize those,” John McClary said. “The scholarship will benefit society in ways that Katie may have done.”
Described as a very happy, outgoing and gregarious child by her mother, Katie learned to read street signs at 18 months and read “The Chronicles of Narnia” by the age of 4. She was in the band at Kohler High School and Duke University, and played several instruments, including the French horn and piano, and self-taught herself others, such as the trumpet. Katie also played basketball at Kohler and Duke. “She was a special student of music,” said Richard Tengowski, band director at Kohler. “She was a good leader. She made a lot of the students around her better. Not a lot of students do that.”
Katie had an innate ability for music and was very insightful, complete student, Tengowski said.
The senior who receives the award will have mirrored Katie’s academic accomplishments through hard work, participating regularly in music programs at Kohler and “by recognizing the importance of athletic competition in their development of leadership skills, the value of teamwork and the demonstration of respect for others through good sportsmanship,” John McClary said during last week’s Kohler High School awards night.
Charlie Simon, 19, a sophomore at the University of Wisconsin–Green Bay, was the first recipient of the scholarship in 2005.
“It’s very nice to receive a scholarship from a family that I’ve known for a long time, to allow me to pursue my education like Katie did,” Simon said. “She was a very academically talented young lady and went out to get her degree and pursue what she loved and that’s what I hope to do as a music teacher.” The McClarys established the scholarship with money left over from Katie’s college fund, because of how well the Kohler School District had prepared Katie and her sisters, Meagan and Erin.
“We thought what about families or students who had to limit their (college) search because of the costs of the school,” said John McClary. Johnson Bank joined with the McClarys in establishing the scholarship after learning about Katie’s tragic accident and what a great student, athlete, and musician she was, according to Mike Leibham of Johnson Bank.
“It’s about supporting the youth of the community in particular the great influence that school had on Katie McClary’s life and hopefully using that influence and dedication of what the school meant to her to help others,” Leibham said.
Lance Northey, Kohler High principal, said Katie was a special student who meant a lot to the school district and the Village of Kohler. “The administration is very appreciative of everything that is given to their kids,” Northey said. “In the end we want them to be productive citizens. I don’t know if there is that much support anywhere else (in the county).”
Lindsey Dvorak, 18, who was awarded the 2006 Katie McClary Memorial Scholarship last week at the school’s honors night, said the McClarys generosity moved her. “When I won I was shaking because I was touched after I heard the story,” Dvorak said. “I feel bad for the family, but I feel good to be able to live through them through the scholarship. I’m going to school in her memory.” (Belia Ortega).
Reach Belia Ortega at bortega@sheboygan-press.com and 453-5169.
Source:sheboygan-press.com
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