Macomb Fire Chief Andy Taylor Passes Away

Miscellaneous discussions. Things that don't have anything to do with Western, Leatherneck Athletics, college sports in general, etc.
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ST_Lawson
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Update, here's the obituary from the McDonough County Voice: http://www.mcdonoughvoice.com/obituarie ... ndy-taylor

Andy Taylor got two degrees from Western and was a member of the Leatherneck Club. He was also current Leathernecks LB Brett Taylor's uncle. I don't know that this will have an impact on Brett Taylor playing tomorrow, sometimes the best place to be in times of grief is surrounded by your "brothers", but I completely understand if the Taylor family and the coaching staff decide that the best thing is for Brett to be with his family this weekend. The funeral is Monday morning, so he shouldn't have any problem being back in Macomb in time for that.
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rocki
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How sad. Deepest condolences to Brett and the rest of Chief Taylor's family.

I did not realize that they were related - I know Brett's mom's family is from Macomb, but didn't realize his dad's side was local, as well.

Thoughts and prayers for all.
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I did not realize that Andy Taylor was also an adjunct faculty member in the LEJA department (teaching in the fire protection services program) since 2014: http://www.wiu.edu/news/newsrelease.php ... e_id=13922
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rocki
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Just out of curiosity, and with the popularity of the LEJA major at Western, does anyone know how many (if any) football players might have been familiar with Chief Taylor from that? I mean, I know they would realize he was Brett's uncle but I wondered if there were other connections there as well. I guess I'm still trying to figure out why the team just completely disintegrated Saturday and wondering if that would have affected more kids than just Brett, or if the disturbance near their hotel screwed them up.
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rocki wrote:Just out of curiosity, and with the popularity of the LEJA major at Western, does anyone know how many (if any) football players might have been familiar with Chief Taylor from that? I mean, I know they would realize he was Brett's uncle but I wondered if there were other connections there as well. I guess I'm still trying to figure out why the team just completely disintegrated Saturday and wondering if that would have affected more kids than just Brett, or if the disturbance near their hotel screwed them up.
I don't really know specifically, but here's the football players who have a connection to the LEJA program, and who might have had a class with him or known him otherwise (ones in bold are the ones who played on Saturday):
Lance Lenoir - LEJA Major
Jaelon Acklin - Psychology Major, LEJA Minor
Sean McGuire - LEJA Major
Justin Corbett - LEJA/Sociology Major
DeVante' Clark - LEJA Major
Jackson Riley - LEJA Major
Kyle Sanft - LEJA Major
Brody Carls - LEJA Major
Chris Zobrist - LEJA Major
Jacob Judd - LEJA Major
Jacob Barnes - LEJA Major
Myron Cunningham - LEJA Major
Adam Fellner - LEJA Major

Brett Taylor also played, of course (he's an RPTA Major, btw)

It's hard to say how it affected them...maybe it didn't make a difference and it was just going to be one of those games where we had trouble getting rolling and their guys were just on fire...maybe it did distract some of them a bit. I know that Taylor had 3 total tackles (and no tackles for loss) on Saturday, when he'd had 13, 10, and 13 in the first 3 games and had averaged slightly over 11 tackles per game last year. He definitely had a "down" game, but probably only he knows if it had anything to do with his uncle or if it was just one of those games.

On a side note, the funeral was this morning. I drove past the church where it was held at around noon to take my son to preschool and the church parking lot (it's The Crossing church, here: https://goo.gl/maps/CzQbVat6jzK2 so it's a big parking lot) was packed with cars and people were parked along the grass around the building as well. When we were heading back to work we got stopped by the funeral procession...probably 10 fire engines, a few other fire vehicles, a couple of ambulances, maybe 6-8 police vehicles, and an older style fire truck (kinda like this) all decked out with flowers and stuff and carrying the coffin.

Also, for the last few days, the block in front of the main fire department has been blocked off and they've had fire trucks parked there, ladders extended, holding up a large american flag. This is hitting the community pretty hard, even with people that didn't really know the family personally.
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rocki
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It certainly has hit hard. I didn't know Chief Taylor, and when I saw he was an adjunct professor in LEJA it surprised me.

The way SDSU played Saturday, we would not have beaten them, I get that. I just am still having a hard time thinking the 'Necks collapse was just from a bad day. I mean, we sucked all around - offense and defense.

I did hear that people along the route of the funeral procession walked outside of their businesses and stood silently when it passed. Such a sad event.
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Story from WGEM: http://www.wgem.com/story/33304570/2016 ... fire-chief

And some writings by John Biernbaum (Associate VP for Student Services): http://pantherneck.blogspot.com/2016/10 ... odays.html
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