"You should remember that though another may have more money, beauty, and brains than you, yet when it comes to the rarer spiritual values such as charity, self-sacrifice, honor, nobility of heart, you have an equal chance with everyone to be the most beloved and honored of all people." -Archibald Rutledge
I found the preceding quote from an old power point from a presentation that Drake Martin had delivered three years ago during a training session at our Joint Training Day for The University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and The University of Northern Iowa. The presentation was on trust and how we as housing staff could work more diligently to be trustworthy individuals and build a covenant of trust with those we came in contact with. As with most of Drake's presentations it was well received by the audience and this quote that closed the presentation was the perfect embodiment of who Drake Martin was and the impact he sought to have on the world around him.
When I lose someone meaningful in my life unexpectedly my brain does not know how to respond to the flood of grief, memories, and attempts to remember how things were left. Since I am not always the world's best verbal processor around my emotions, I turn to the page to reflect on my friend and mentor Drake Martin, who died this past weekend after falling from a cliff at a State Park at the age 62, after 30 years of service as the Assistant Director of Residence Education at UNI. I had the honor of working with Drake for four years as a Hall Coordinator at UNI.
The sheer absurdity of Drake dying from falling off a cliff is like one final pun and life lesson from the pun master himself, one last lesson from a man that taught me so much. Those of you that know me know that I guard the the title of mentor closely but there is simply no other title for what I gleaned from Drake. I simply would not be the professional I am today without the experiences that Drake (and Lyn) allowed me to have as a Hall Coordinator at UNI.
The opportunities at UNI as a Hall Coordinator are second to none, especially in the realm of Residence Education. There was no assigned programmatic model at UNI, no specified number of programs the staff had to complete, no dictated dogma of what students "needed" to be successful. Instead Drake worked with each HC to create a responsive model that would address the varied needs of the students in that specific building, based on what the HC was seeing and assessing was going on/needed in that building. For someone such as myself, with Ideation and Adaptability as strengths, it was a laboratory of possibilities. A chance to take the thoughts and ideas of graduate school and see what actually worked with a varied community of learners. I never had the same plan for two years in a row at UNI and Drake was with me step by step as we worked to see what was effective to build a community of "Citizens and Scholars". Staff at Iowa are familiar with The PATH, but those ideas existed at first as The Beast at UNI, an idea grafted from UWW and adapted to Campbell Hall for two years. An interactive programmatic model for student staff to use in lieu of scripted programming. Success and failures occurred, but Drake was behind me every step of the way with new ideas, new suggestions, and questioning me to make sure we were being intentional and thoughtful.
He helped me understand a different side of advising groups like RHA and NRHH by questioning the purpose of the organizations at multiple levels and if they were effective for our students in the halls...always with an eye on the individual student and how we made meaning for them and made them feel like they mattered, and how we worked to empower them to write their own experiences. His perspective was not always easy to hear for someone bred in the NACURH framework, but the challenge and support is something I think back on today as helping me to have shaped my own vision of philosophy of residential student leadership. Before I had taken the steps on my journey about what it meant to be socially just or a white advocate, Drake was teaching me about those roles through our conversations, gently challenging assumptions I thought were open-minded or behaviors I thought were inclusive. Anytime I gave a presentation he was at he was offering up suggestions on how to improve the moment or make things better for the next time, he helped me to embrace my Maximizer!
Some of my favorite interactions and times with Drake were when he told stories of himself and his experiences. A personal favorite was when he talked about his wrestling career and how he had earned the nickname "The Clamp" due to his prowess at holding an opponent down and unable to move. I loved to call him The Clamp when we got to spend time together. I also remember a staff development activity we had at one point during my time at UNI, and the details are fuzzy, but we were talking about some hope or desire, or dream or wish we wanted or thought about. Everyone went around the table sharing about their thoughts, dreams, aspirations...the kind of high minded idealism that surrounds an activity like this. When we got to Drake, he paused for a moment and simply stated...."Beyonce. I want Beyonce." Oh man did we have a great laugh at that.
That is what I will remember about Drake. The laughter, the eye rolls at his puns, the fact that our one-on-ones would always run long as we bounced ideas back and forth between each other, talked about politics, talked about our lives, and spent time together "being" with each other. We challenged each other and disagreed on many things, but he was always patient and willing to put up with me and my youthful over-confidence. I always knew he cared about me and my professional career, even when we sat on opposite sides of the issue. He was terrific to my wife Erin and my son Max when he was born during my third year at UNI. He gave Max a knit UNI stocking cap since he knew how much I loved the Panthers and cheering them along. All three of my boys have worn that stocking cap and we use it still.
I used to convince myself that Drake was out of touch and even swore to myself that if I reached the point in my career that he had that I would have considered my career only half fulfilled since he had been in the same position for so long without advancing. It would be some years later that I would realize that I was a fool (on this and many things you think when you are in your entry level job) and never saw that Drake was living the life I could only hope to achieve in my professional career. Luckily, I did see that in retrospect, talking to my current supervisor several years ago about how Drake had it all figured out. He had found a role where he got to make a difference, doing what he loved to do and what he was good at doing. He spent time with his family and put them in the proper place and raised two gifted and amazing daughters. He thoughtfully and intentionally gave back to the university and the community. He advocated for those with no voice and showed me what it meant to be a white advocate. If we view life as an attempt to figure out what it means to be human and live out those ideals in our work and daily life, then Drake Martin had done an amazing job of living his life. He made a profound difference in my life and so many others, and I will miss him.
