Another student began his college career that year with me. Ryan was from McLoud, OK. He was kinda quiet if you didn't know him, and many thought of him that way. We were pledge brothers that year. It was through Alpha that I found the guy who would be my best friend there.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, May 23, 1999, Ryan was returning home from a date with his girlfriend. He was travelling eastbound on a four-lane highway with a grassy median. A drunken woman named Emily Dowdy hit him while she was going 69 mph in a 60 mph zone. She had crossed the median, travelled two and a half miles going the wrong way, and hit him head on.
Reports say she never braked. He did, swerved, and took the hit on the front drivers side. There was no suffering, his death was instantaneous. The impact was so hard it knocked his car back 100 ft. She fractured some bones in her neck, but will fully recover. Her Blood Alcohol Content was 0.12.
To this day, Dowdy has not shown any remorse to Ryan's family for what she did. However I am very pleased to say that on January 12, 2001, Emily Dowdy was found guilty of 1st - degree Manslaughter and sentenced to 25 years in jail.
Ryan was truly a great friend to me. I had many, many friends there at OC, but he was the closest to me, not to downplay any of my friends there. But I could talk to him about anything. We came from almost completly different backgrounds, but sometimes it seemed like he was the only one who really understood me while I was there. We would sit out and watch the awesome storms together, play pranks on security after curfew, shoe-polish cars, listen to music, go see movies, play ping pong (in which he consistently beat me), and just talk about life. We could always vent to each other because we wouldn't try to tone each other down. Whatever we need to get out, we would let him get it out however he wanted.
A couple weeks after I found out about what happened, a student here at Harding was killed on a rafting trip. I know the student's younger brother, and I had the opportunity to hear him talk about his reaction's to his brother's death. He said you can't blame God for taking him, because he didn't. "God did not take my brother, Satan did." I knew what he meant, and I kinda added on to it in my head. "God didn't take Ryan, Satan took him - but God rescued him."
I would like to thank Michael Jones for doing so much in trying to find me when this happened, and also everybody else who tried to contact me. May we all remember the life he shared with us.
Ryan, thank you for being my friend. Thank you for your example. I can't wait to see you again.