{"id":9189,"date":"2021-02-22T14:21:41","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T14:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/2021\/02\/22\/a-gift-to-remember\/"},"modified":"2022-09-07T15:38:29","modified_gmt":"2022-09-07T19:38:29","slug":"a-gift-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/a-gift-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"A gift to remember"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"family

Deb, Sam, Kate (Sam’s sister) and David Spear in Saint Martin, the location of Kate’s 2013 wedding to Jean-Louis Delayen (not pictured).<\/p><\/div>\n

Sam E. Spear \u201909 grew up in the \u201990s with multiple sports, a bit of childhood mischief, the trappings of the day \u2013 Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles \u2013\u00a0and seemingly endless summers at the local pool.<\/p>\n

When he arrived at Furman University, he came into his own, becoming an intensely driven fitness enthusiast in his major, health and exercise science.<\/p>\n

But what made Sam different from most was his ability to connect with people of all ages, a skill that served him well as a personal trainer with The Cliffs at Glassy, a residential community tucked away in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Sam\u2019s main virtue was his ability to accept, and even to like almost anyone,\u201d\u00a0said Sam\u2019s father, David, during a eulogy that came all too early.\u201cFrom an early age, he was comfortable with other kids, but also with adults \u2013 really all sorts of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Emeritus Professor of History David Spear shared a special bond with his son. He started reading to Sam each night from a history series when Sam was 6 years old and continued the bedtime ritual well into adolescence, when the pull of other interests prevailed over stories of world history. They shared a love of baseball, too, traveling in the summers to see 15 of the 30 Major League ball parks, sometimes hitting as many as five parks in a single trip.<\/p>\n

\"three

Sam, Deb and Kate visit family in Wisconsin, 2015.<\/p><\/div>\n

For Debbie Spear, it was the flowers. Every Mother\u2019s Day for close to two decades, Sam would barrel up the stairs with \u201chis huge feet,\u201d beaming smile and enormous hug to deliver flowers to his mom.<\/p>\n

Memories like these sustain David and Debbie in the wake of their son\u2019s death on July 23, 2019. Sam succumbed to alcohol addiction made worse by a traumatic brain injury sustained after a fall, and a series of personal and other health struggles that together took their toll on the 32-year-old.<\/p>\n

Almost two years later, the Spears, still reeling from what Debbie terms \u201ccrippling loss,\u201d wrestled with how to honor Sam through a financial gift to Furman.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we really wanted was to have a sober-living house,\u201d Debbie, says \u2013 a drug- and alcohol-free place where students with similar addiction stories can support one another and hold each other accountable during their recovery. But without a straightforward way to set up a house through Furman, the Spears looked to the Department of Health Sciences, formerly known as Health and Exercise Science.<\/p>\n

\u201cSam loved exercise science, he just loved it,\u201d Debbie says.<\/p>\n

Sam\u2019s effervescence shined most when he worked as a fitness trainer at The Cliffs, she remembers. \u201cHe worked with people a little older than his mother,\u201d she says, keeping her humor. \u201cHe just liked everybody,\u201d she says, echoing the words her husband. \u201cThere was never anybody, any group, or nationality he was uncomfortable with.\u201d Debbie, an English as a Second Language teacher, frequently had all sorts of different nationalities and backgrounds in the house while Sam was growing up. \u201cSam was right at home, and he made them feel right at home,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe came into some unanticipated family funds \u2013 not millions of dollars \u2013 so we were able to think about something we could do,\u201d Debbie says. \u201cSam had benefitted so much from Furman, so we thought, \u2018What would Sam have wanted to do to encourage people to be as crazy about this [health and exercise science] as he was?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The Spears concluded that if they could find a way to make it possible for students to do extra things, like attend conferences in the field, the funding would go a long way toward enhancing their understanding and appreciation of the discipline \u2013 \u201cproviding just the right encouragement at just the right time \u2013 much like Sam\u2019s internship at The Cliffs changed his life,\u201d Debbie adds.<\/p>\n

\"three

David, Sam and Jean-Louis Delayen hold Kate at the beach in Saint Martin, 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

So the Spears created the Sam Spear \u201909 Fund for Student Enrichment in Health Sciences.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health sciences department encouraged Sam\u2019s internship at The Cliffs. They knew Sam and the kinds of things he would have liked,\u201d Debbie says.<\/p>\n

But more than the gift itself, the Spears want all to remember Sam\u2019s love of people. \u201cHe had such an ease with people and excitement about meeting new people,\u201d Debbie says.<\/p>\n

\"man

Sam and Kate share a brother and sister moment on the beach in Saint Martin, 2013.<\/p><\/div>\n

Even during the darkest moments of his life and while facing \u201cmonumental obstacles,\u201d Sam\u2019s bravery, kindness and authenticity would not be squelched, remembers Sam\u2019s sister,\u00a0 Katherine (Kate) Spear Delayen. \u201cHe was genuinely kind, and that\u2019s what made him a friend to all,\u201d she said during Sam\u2019s memorial.<\/p>\n

Fiercely loyal, it was Sam who, in his well days, would encourage his friends to stay on track, coming alongside them as they battled their own demons, remarked Rev. Deborah Steed, presiding chaplain at Sam\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

\"Sam

Sam Spear ’09\u00a0(1986-2019).<\/p><\/div>\n

A close friend who also spoke at the memorial said Sam coached people to think about the long run versus momentary gratification. He poured out bottles of liquor on their behalf, all the while listening, supporting and fighting for his friends without an ounce of judgment.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Sam the Spears want people to hold in their memory \u2013 the Sam Spear who loved people, wellness, Furman and his South Carolina home.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loved Furman and was so proud to be a South Carolinian,\u201d Debbie says. \u201cThere\u2019s not much we can do to redeem this (loss), but I think Sam would be thrilled to know there\u2019s something at Furman that is supporting what he was most passionate about and the department he loved the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sam E. Spear \u201909 grew up in the \u201990s with multiple sports, a bit of childhood mischief, the trappings of the day \u2013 Batman and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles \u2013\u00a0and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":257,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,3,57,21,42,35,7,1],"tags":[126,298,695,515,696],"class_list":["post-9189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academic-department-page","category-alumni","category-donor-stories","category-health-sciences","category-history","category-parent-news","category-top-four-news-2nd-story","category-uncategorized","tag-addiction","tag-baseball","tag-fitness","tag-traumatic-brain-injury","tag-wellness"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/257"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9189"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9189\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}