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Max KellyIn memory of Max Richard Kelly
Sean’s Run Weekend 2015 is dedicated to the memory of Max Richard Kelly who perished as a passenger in a car driven by a 19-year old intoxicated driver on December 31, 2012. Max is fondly remembered on the campus of Columbia Greene Community College as kind, sensitive, very popular and for his outstanding athleticism as a member of his college baseball team. Max is the son of Jodi Wische and John Kelly and brother of Sawyer Kelly.

Joan Koweek, Director of Development and Alumni Services at Columbia-Greene Community College, remembers max fondly: "Max was C-GCC's big man on campus. It wasn't just because he was the popular baseball player the whole campus community knew, but because he was Max, the guy who beat to his own drum with the infectious smile, who engaged all around him, who gave you his undivided attention and made you made you feel like you were the only person that mattered at that moment. There was always fun and adventure where Max was concerned but in the dugout he was the glue, the passion, the strength and the spirit that held the baseball team together. Max lived life to the fullest in his short years. C-GCC is grateful Max chose to be a part of this community. His legacy will live on at Columbia-Greene Community College."


About Our Son Max
By Jodie Wische

As I sit down to write our story of Max Dick Kelly, I know this is a story that no parent should ever have to write. Your children should out live you. In the perfect world, they should not fall victim, to accident and senseless tragedy.  They should thrive and navigate this planet long after you, their parents have departed.   Unfortunate for us, that would not be our fate.  Max’s story is similar to way too many other youths in how his life ends. He lost his life by being a passenger in a car crash of an intoxicated driver.   The story we get to write today is definitely bitter sweet. Thinking about Max always first brings a smile to my face, ….how could it not, our Max was incredible joy to us.  And then there is that overwhelming sorrow that is still raw after all this time from the mere absence of his presence in our everyday lives and how much we miss him.   We had a wonderful life together with Max. 

Born in 1991 in the heat of the summer, Max Kelly arrived in this world as a textbook birth and John exclaimed, ‘”It’s my linebacker Jodie Rae!” We were all immediately totally in love with one another and quickly settled in to being a family.  Max was an easy child, thrilled with all this world had to offer.  He was intrigued by anything new, and there was very little that scared him. He loved trucks, cars, elephants, farm animals, the bunny he carried with him almost all of the time for the first few years of his life that I can’t seem to recall his name, and a blue silk “blanky” that he slept with until it fell apart. 

Max Kelly  

Max was a free spirit and made friends easily.  He enjoyed friendships at Northern Dutchess Daycare with Taylor Zant,  Spencer Dalzell, Casey Gilbert and  Ian Whittaker.  At Sunshine there were others and again the names escape me, they wouldn’t escape Max. Max at around three years of age had a real love for baseball.  John loved the sport, and Max loved John.  It was meant to be.  We got Max a glove and playing catch was something they both loved to do together. It was 1995 and we started building our house, Max was over the moon with delight at the BIG equipment that came in to excavate the foundation.  When we hit rock unexpectedly and had to blast with dynamite, Max was there, thrilled with every step, and when the blast when off, his only remarks were “can we do that again?” Anything fun or exciting delighted Max.

From a very early age Max had his own way of navigating through life, there was Eastern Standard Time, farmer time, and then there was Max time.  No matter how much we prodded him, he just was going to move at his own pace.  A style he carried with him and that drove us as parents crazy.  He developed a tight bond with Aiden Nicholas and Ian Leonard when we moved to Germantown .  Max, much to my disliking also had an adoration for teenage mutant ninja turtles and the color black.  We were even called into school during his first few months of kindergarten concerned that he only colored in black and there was some underlying meaning to this darkness he preferred. We asked him why he only colored in black and he said he it was his favorite color.   Seemed reasonable to us, what did we know,

Max was our first child, and every experience was new.  Kindergarten was also the year that Max was playing airplane with a classmate and accidently dislocated the boys arm. Something we would learn later, that child was prone to.   Well, that event got Max in school suspension for a week which was served in the high school detention office with high school students who were also serving time for their poor behaviors.   Certainly not a group that I was happy to have Max immersed in at 5 years of age, but as a novice parent, was very naïve in how to navigate the school system, and Max paid the price for my lack of knowledge.  This experience certainly afforded Max some lessons none of us would have expected, the least of it were some new curse words.  

Max quickly became known and accepted by all the ‘cool’ kids in school; Kindergarten he met Jeremy Coons, Michael Craft, Melissa Fuchs, Heather Mabb, and Megan Delaney.   He was courageous in his attitude towards life. In first grade, thank goodness for Nancy Guski.  Maxed loved her class and he learned to love to read here.  It was a magical year for Max, and the year his sister Sawyer joined our family. Nancy’s class fostered fantasy, imagination and sheer discovery. One of my favorite pictures of Max is him dressed up as a knight for some event in Nancy Guski’s first grade class.   Max loved school.  That was the year that he forged his relationships with Chris Palazzo, Ryan Broast, Brandon Jason, Kyle Place, Caitlyn Briggs, Suzanne Wright, Cody Rockefeller and the rest of the G-town locals. 

By this age Max got involved in Little League, Cub Scouts,  dance class and we were raising sheep at our house anticipating his participation in 4-H.  We were busy.  We created fun events for holidays and had the annual Easter egg hunt, pumpkin carving, piñata’s for birthdays and parties at the water park, and of course, visits from Santa.  We went to Disneyland, Lion Country Safari and Great Escape. 

Max Kelly

There are moments from each year of his Max’s life that stand out in my memory.  When he was around eight years old I remember Max arriving home on the school bus on an unseasonably hot day in March and wanting to take a swim.  He had been in a stuffy classroom all day with the strict regiment of Sharon Zant.  He wanted freedom and to enjoy a swim.  We had a test hole in our field that had filled up with water and was the perfect pint size pool for Max.  Max ran from the bus to get into his bathing suit.  He was going for it regardless of how much we tried to persuade him that although it was hot out, the water would be icy cold, but he shrugged it off, and seized the day and jumped in feet first.   

John and I were there to watch him gasped his first breath upon making it to the water surface and John grabbed  him out. He was shivering from the frigid water and the only thing he asked was “why we let him do that!”    Boy that kid made us laugh! 

When he started catching in Little League he had Mark Redmond and Jim Guslaw in stitches behind the plate with his signals and seriousness of the game.  He was a natural athlete and had intuitiveness for baseball.  By fourth grade, Max’s teacher was so taken by him that she shared she was using him as the key character in a book she was writing.  We would love to get a copy of it if it ever went to print.    After his ninth birthday, he officially joined 4-H and I can remember all his wonderful costumes he wore in parading his sheep around over the next few years. Of course the real reason to join 4-H, I was to learn was to  be able to spend the week sleeping in the dorms at the fair.  He had a blast! .  At ten years of age, he took up Jazz and Tap Dance Lessons and didn’t care how his classmates perceived his participation.  At twelve he decided to take up Hebrew and Talmud studies so he could become Bar Mitzvah on his thirteenth birthday.  He was comfortable in trying anything and we supported and indulged him. 

There were first dates, and school dances and basketball game, and field trips with John always there as a chaperone.  We traveled to Canada, went boating, fishing, saw plays and circuses and trips to Florida to visit his grandparents. He loved to swim in the ocean, play a pickup basketball game, or soccer, or catch and enjoyed golf lessons with grandpa.  Good healthy food was important to us, and Max had a love for food that makes me smile just thinking about it.  That boy loved to eat!  We were the parents that tried to expose our kids to more than just what our little community had to offer.  Max excelled in school, bright happy kid.  He was well liked by most and he was a sweet respectful child.

He was brave and courageous about trying new things and possessed an innate ability to make himself comfortable in any situation and at the age of twelve went away to Baseball Camp not knowing a sole.  He finished the week off with quite a few more friends.  

Max was a hairy guy and a chameleon of sorts.  He had a unique style about him and enjoyed looking different. He shaved his head, grew a Mohawk, and let it grow out into long luxurious black ringlet curls. Whichever his preference took him on any given day he was able to express himself. As one team mate later in life would say, Max would be clean shaven in the morning and have a beard in the afternoon.

John got Max a lot car when he was twelve so he could learn how to drive.  He drove it all over our property and by the time he was sixteen and able to get his permit, it was not of much interest to him.  Wow!  That blew us away, but we certainly didn’t push it.  We were there to take him wherever he wanted to go and  Baseball was his passion.  We, or more accurately I, should say John traveled with him all over the country going to elite baseball tournaments and playing on travel baseball teams up and down the east coast.   Teams picked him up after watching him play, to fill in where they were short and Max’s battalion of baseball friends grew, game after game.   Max’s skills were being honed and his ability with the bat was something else.  His last year of playing ball in Germantown, he batted over 500, something he was and should have been extremely proud of. 

His acumen in sports led him to obtaining a full scholarship to Northfield Mount Hermon School – one of the top preparatory schools in the Northeast.  Max repeated his junior year there and spent the first few months injured and in a cast, and although made incredible friendships there Joe Sharkey, Charlie Dicky, and Nicholas Sheets and the rest of the gang.  He was unable to keep up with the rigorous study requirements that were absolutely different from what he had experienced at Germantown. 

Max Kelly

Max came home the next year to finish his high school requirements and was ineligible to play sports.  That was a tough year for Max, especially since the baseball coach would not let him assist in coaching or helping with the team.   Max did however coach girls modified basketball in tandem with John that year and developed a new found respect and joy for helping other players succeed. He solidified friendships with Cody, and Thomas, Taylor and Carissa, Steve Snyder and Robbie Q.   He graduated from Germantown and will be remembered by his fellow classmates for the guy who went naked under his gown. He just was not going to be uncomfortable in that hot gym during the ceremony. 

That was our Maxi! Max was the guy who entered the room and the energy automatically changed.  He was a positive force.  He was charming, good natured, athletic, fun loving and absolutely stunning.  We took our vacations to Dominican Republic and Mexico during Max’s teenage years and enjoyed spending time together at the beach, trying new foods or traveling domestically to some baseball conference to watch Max excel at his sport.  We were happy and a tight knit group and we put up a batting cage to allow Max to practice his sport at home.   We shared a birthday party together, My 50th his 17th. Life was good

 The year before Max went to college we took an extended vacation and went to Ecuador with my brother-in-law and John’s  cousins.  We were a party of eight and we had a blast.  Max swam in a pod of hundreds of dolphins, sat on a park bench with a sea lion,  visited ancient cities, met indigenous Indians, saw poverty unveiled, sailed for a week through the Galapagos islands, encountering strange animals like the Blue Footed Boobie and  experienced being sick at sea.  We forged many memories during our time together and had a fun adventure.

When we returned, Max accepted his admission invitation to St John Fisher happy to being playing baseball for a coach that had followed him and was eager to have Max play on the team. It was 2010.    Max was only to be disappointed after learning that right before he made it to campus the coach he anticipated playing for had transferred to Clemson. Max unfortunately didn’t click with the new coach and was devastated not to make the team.  Max spent the year at St John Fisher, but was like a fish out of water with no baseball in his life.  He forged friendships with Meagan, Cody, Ben, Mason,  Jaclyn and Bridget.  He got a tattoo that year, much to my disappointment – a Star of David in the middle of his back with his moniker on it.  Hebrew Hammer.  He loved it!

With hopes to play baseball - Max  was offered a spot to play for the inaugural baseball team at Columbia-Greene Community College with some of the boys he had been playing with for the past eight years…..and jumped at the opportunity.  Mike Jacobsen, Cody Broast, and DJ Lyons with Max all reunited to play, what fun!   He attended Columbia-Greene in the fall of  2011 and got into a groove.    Max had gotten his driver’s license, he was trying new subjects, like art and ceramics and he was enjoying his time. The summer of 2012 – Max celebrated his 21st birthday, and for the first summer since the age of three did not play baseball.  He wanted the summer off to just idle away.  We agreed to go to Mexico with his buddy Ryan joining us on our family birthday celebration.  We visited ancient ruins, kayaked, danced and sunbathed and swam in the ocean. We played beach soccer, read and Max climbed coconut palm trees.  We felt blessed as a family.  He thanked us for taking him there and letting him have the summer off.

Max was excited about the fall of 2012.  He was captain of his Columbia-Greene Community College baseball team, it was his last year and a major league team had drafted his friend and teammate Mike Dodig after their 2011-12 season.  Max was psyched to return to the field and play his heart out, and see if he could continue to pursue his baseball career.  He had a good first semester at Columbia-Greene  and when it was completed, he asked if we could stay home so he could get to see all his friends that had been away at school.  We usually went away for the holidays to some place warm.  I reluctantly agreed to spend the 2012 Holiday season at home, something I will regret the rest of my life.

We got the call at 4:00 am the morning of December 31, 2012 from the State Police that our son Max had been air transported to Albany Medical Center and they would be there to meet us.  The next several hours were agony as they worked on Max to try and revive him, our poor beautiful boy so damaged from the impact.  We officially lost Max around 9 am, the last day in 2012.  He was 21 years old, and in the prime of his life.

We had a wonderful life when our son Max was alive.  I am not saying that everything was perfect, far from it, but our family didn’t have this big gaping hole in their hearts.  We were on a wonderful adventure together and we lost one of our most precious participants.  

These snippets of Max’s life that grace these pages are all we have to hold on to.  There will be no more birthday celebrations, no watching his smile as he blows out the candles, no celebrations for engagements, marriages, no grand children for us from Max.  So sad, Max loved babies.  No more baseball games; we are ever so thankful for all we videoed.   No watching him eat Sunday dinner, no more marks on the post that shows the year and his height.   He won’t be here to see his sister finally graduate from High School or where she will end up going to college.    No more Easter Egg Hunts, Carving Pumpkins, or trips to Spain or Ireland.  We will have to do them without you Max, your absence is so crushing to our family.

Max, in the past two or so years so much has happened since you have been gone.   We had a celebration of your life and hundreds came from all over the country. 

Max would be proud to know that we stood up for his best friend so he didn’t serve time in Jail. That we embraced all that he loved and that loved him, and we are a bigger family because of it.  That we received his degree for him at Columbia-Greene, honoring him and his work!  That we set up a scholarship in his name at Columbia-Greene so more people will have the opportunity to greater education and chasing their dreams. That Suze has moved in with Ryan and some of his friends have become engaged after completing college. Max would love the totem pole we erected in his honor and had everyone sign. He would be excited to learn that his cousin Rachael is pregnant and going to have a baby boy this May; oh he would have loved to hold that baby! 

He would be honored to know that Sean’s Run thought enough of his story to want to dedicate this years event in your memory.

Our purpose in telling Max’s story, for it wasn’t easy for us to do, was to hope that by telling it, will help to prevent another tragedy like his.  The drunk driver responsible for Max’s demise was one of Max’s best friends.  Hard to believe, but we have now learned it happens only too often. 

Max was a centerpiece in our lives.  We knew he was our shining star but what we have learned about him since his passing, was that he was oh so much more than that.  Max touched many lives and made a lasting impression from the start.  He made life-long friendships with those he met along his journey.  He was a leader and inspirational.    We saw it happen throughout his short life time.  As one friend stated “One thing we can all agree on, Max was one of the best friends anyone could ever ask for.” Have you ever stuck your head out the window while driving down a backroad on a warm summer day or spun around in circles really really fast-that's what Max was like-carefree, breathless, and exhilarating. He lived in the moment and didn't care who was watching. He was the most single-heartedly genuine, honest, and free human being I've ever known.

As John states it so well, “We are the luckiest of the unlucky.  We, who were lucky enough to be blessed with Max as our son.  We who are so much more full of life because we did have Max in ours, but  so unlucky to have to endure the remainder of our lives without him.”

Max Kelly

John Halligan, one of his college friends, wrote the following in remembrance of Max:  

I just wanted to let you know that you weren't just a captain, coach, leader for the game of baseball, but a role model on how to love and enjoy life to the fullest. I'll never forget your locker room stories. They still get brought up between your teammates and new hilarious ones always get added to the conversations. You are forever loved and missed Captain Max. Thanks for making my freshman year of college baseball the best year of ball I've ever played. You took me under your wing and taught me how to play the outfield even though right field was your position. I'll never forget when you asked me to run the warning track before your last game. We talked about how excited you were that a scout was at the game and what you wanted to prove, and man did you have a game! Your focus, talent and passion truly showed that day. I'm forever blessed to be your teammate and bat in the same line up as you.But it didn't matter where any teammate batted in the lineup you were the first one yelling and helping that player out in the batters box. You were a part of that players confidence in the box. That confidence in the box you gave me was carried to my everyday life. Thanks for everything man!

A classmate,  Nicholas Sheets,  from Northfield Mount Hermon School wrote a poem about his friendship with Max:

At NMH I knew of kids, that would love to just pretend,
To be a jock, to a nerd, to even be a friend,
People live out every day; trying to be something they’re not,
This often bites them in the ass, whenever it is they get caught.
But those that got to know you well, their sky was always blue
Because a huge role model was right in front of them, and yes Max that’s you.
You were yourself and no one else and never even had to try,
Making people around you happy, and laugh so hard they’d cry.
You loved your friends, you loved your fam, you simply loved the Earth,
Just nothing anyone can do or say, can ever express your worth.
If I could say one last thing,
And one last thing is all,
To those that felt short and weak, you made them all feel tall.

 

 


 

 

 

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