VBI Mourns a Staff Member

During the 2003-2004, if you were involved in national circuit Lincoln-Douglas high school debate, you must have heard of John McKay. John was simply among the best in the nation that year. As Jon Cruz writes on VBD:

In his senior year, he earned nine bids to the TOC, where he was a semifinalist. He placed at the MBA and Stanford Round Robins, was runner-up at the Mineapple, closed out CPS and MLK, and won Manchester, Grapevine, the Victory Briefs Round Robin, and the St. Mark’s Heart of Texas Invitational. A VBI alumnus and a student at Stanford University, this weekend’s Session II would have marked his fourth session teaching with us.

I had the privilege of being at the Stanford National Forensics Institute with John and many other great debate minds in the summer of 2003. While I never really knew John well, the work that he did in only his first year out of debate in setting up the Voices Foundation impressed and inspired me. John became one of the great people in this activity, always willing to be friendly and to talk to others. Because of John, I was able to find out that Brian won his double-octo final round at Stanford before even Scheffler knew (and Tim was at the tournament). And at the TOC this May, John was Brian’s second round judge. I found his opinion fair and thoughtful, and his oral/disclosure encouraging. It is sad to say that this was one of the few rounds John judged then, and will ever judge at the TOC.

In a discussion on LD-Debate.org, John provided an interesting commentary on the value of debating. Very competitive debaters (of which the national circuit is almost entirely composed of) often feel a tension between debate as a competition and debate as an educational-extracurricular. John wrote:

Debate wasn’t just a net beneficial activity for me, though. It was a priceless part of my life. What made debate priceless for me, however, was the character that competition allowed me to build. I had a rough patch in my life late in middle school. A combination of personal factors that I won’t go into led me to quit swimming and water polo after 8 years of dedication, and spiral in school. I gained a ton of weight, loafed around the house all day, never did any homework, had a massive grade drop and became severely anti-social. When I entered debate, however, it allowed me to start setting goals for myself again. Those goals started out modestly. I came from the very bottom, I promise (I was destroyed every round at my first novice tournament and saw very little growth for a long time). I did, however, see improvement. The competition allowed a gateway for me to be a winner. A winner, in this context, shouldn’t be confused with a person who simply wins lots of rounds. A winner is someone who demands of themself personal growth and improvement. It may be comforting for you to know, Alex, that the biggest winner that I know in debate never received a TOC bid (despite many attempts). The reason he was the biggest winner, however, was because he gained the most out of the activity by becoming a much better all around person. I think that the vast majority of people in debate come out winners. I honestly believe that debate betters people, and that’s why I love this activity.

So VBD’s news that John McKay passed away yesterday is shocking at a bare minimum. To hear that some one who has grown to love debate so much, and in turn was loved by the debate community, is now gone is always hard. However, this news becomes increasingly difficult to bear when you consider that John was only 19. Personally, I find this news scary. There are no details of what exactly happened, and I do not mean to impose upon the family for them. I certainly hope, though, that the cause of death was not suicide. Or caused by anything the debate community could have prevented. For if one of our own loved members died alone, and we could have helped, redemption would be a long and winding road. I pray that this is not the case. And for the first time in a long time, I am using the word “pray” with all of the meaning that the word once held for me. I do not think that I will be taking my Voices bracelet off for along time.

Good bye Jon, we hardly knew you. You will be missed.

updated 8/4/2005 – 10:23 p.m. cst.