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Incoming student dies
Family and friends mourn loss of athlete, academic
BY FRANK TANKARD
ftankard@kansan.com
KANSAN STAFF WRITER
It's the end of summer and time to cut the corn. So many years ago, when Matt Yost was a toddler, he used to "farm the carpet" of his house near Moundridge using toys as heavy equipment with his older brother. Grant
After finishing a real day's work
in the field this week,
Grant's phone rang,
and he once more recounted
memories of his younger brother,
this time to a
reporter. Grant
couldn't help but
remember those
first years, playing in the living room and making tractor sounds with Matt.
Today, Matt, 18, would have attended his first class at the University of Kansas, where he was planning to study architecture. Instead, his life was cut short in late July. After a struggle with depression, the young man known for his smile committed suicide.
Grant, a Kansas State junior, seemed used to talking about Matt's life and death by now, and his words flowed evenly and coolly into the phone. Earlier this summer, when life was normal, Grant accompanied his brother to KU orientation, giving him a tip or two about college life.
Now Grant has to rely on the memories he and his family share of Matt, the youngest of three children. Grant remembered him as both an outstanding athlete and a strong academic student who scored a 32 on his ACT test and was in National Honor Society.
SUICIDE PREVENTION TIPS
MattYost's family would like to raise awareness of suicide signs and prevention. Counseling and Psychological Services offers consultation in the second floor of Watkins Memorial Health Center.
Some tips from CAPS for dealing with someone who may be suicidal:
Matt was a gifted running back on the football team, averaging 10.7 yards per carry his senior year at Moundridge High School. At the funeral, Moundridge football coach Brad Hollinger spoke of the selflessness of the person called "Toast" by his teammates.
- Take your friend's pain seriously.
In the life history handed out at Matt's funeral July 29, his older sister, Janette Crawford, wrote: "We'll never know exactly why Matt ended his life, and we'll ask questions until we leave this world. But we know God is bigger and more powerful than death, and bigger and more powerful than depression and other diseases of the mind. God knows the truth, and the heart."
Keep in touch and be interested.
◆ If your friend's talk frightens you, say so.
CAMPUS
Offer positive actions, alternatives and establish hope for the future.
"Matt was probably a better back for us without the football than when he had the football," Hollinger said, according to a transcript. "Matt carried out ball-fakes that would win him an academy award."
Important numbers:
- Don't assume the situation will go away.
- National Hopeline Network suicide hot line: 1-800-SUI-CIDE (784-2433), available 24 hours a day, seven days a week
Counseling and Psychological Services: (785)864-CAPS
(2277), available from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday, Thursday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Wednesday
*Bert Nash Community, Mental Health Center: (785)843-9192
Headquarters Counseling Center: (785)841-2345
★ KU Psychological Clinic: (788) 864-4121
★ Lakeside
♦ Lawrence Memorial Hospital emergency room: (785)749-6162
Source: Counseling and Psychological Services
- Watkins Memorial Health Center: (785)864-9500
Matt would never put himself before his team, even though he was a star.
"When we would watch game film, any mention of his athleticism, big play or stats would just bring out that smile," Hollinger said. "You know the smile, along with that curly mop of his that could brighten any room that he walked into."
Kyle Neufeld, a classmate of Matt's since they started school and a football teammate, remembered a strange habit he had.
"A really funny thing is during football practice every day he'd punt the ball to himself during breaks," he said, giving a little chuckle as he pictured it. "He'd punt the ball straight up and catch it."
Cassondra Huxman, another classmate, remembered both Matt's humility and his famous blazing speed in gym class when they were young.
"You had to look out for him, because if you didn't keep an eye on him, he'd be gone, flying across the gym," she said.
Grant spoke of the work Matt put into his success in athletics. Matt excelled in track in addition to football, competing in the 800 meters at the Kansas state meet as a junior. Matt thought a healthy diet
was important to his success, so he became a vegetarian. Grant said.
Matt's father, John Yost, said Matt had strong opinions on many subjects and was deeply concerned about political issues.
"He was well-read," he said. "If things didn't work out, whether it be global warming or whatever, he could see the fallacy in the discussion points. He was good at really looking at things and determining what's really going on."
Matt transferred to Rocky Ford High School in Rocky Ford, Colo., midway through his senior year, where he stayed with family and graduated in May. Crawford wrote in his life history that at the end of his life "Matt became a different person than the sweet, smiling Matt we used to know."
Together, the Yost family — Grant, Janette, John and his mother, Carol — tried to convey who Matt was through written remembrances and interviews. Stories such as how much he cared for their cat Truman, and the time he stopped at every historical landmark off Highway 50 when driving his siblings back from a Colorado trip at age 16. Just the things that come to mind. Snapshots, not one of them telling the complete story of a life cut short. There are so many happy memories.
Edited by Becca Evanhoe
Professor receives prestigious award
The Anderson W. Chandler Professorship in Business was awarded to Mark Hirschey, a professor of finance at the University of Kansas School of Business. Hirschey was chosen by a committee of his colleagues and students to receive this honor. The decision was based on Hirschey's teaching and research performance.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN 3A
"The professorship is a compliment to the leadership of the business school, the administrators, as well as to Anderson W. Chandler," Hirschey said.
Gaby Souza
Students omitted from honor roll
The names of 77 School of Engineering students were mistakenly left off the spring honor roll.
The error was due to an oversight in the Registrar's office.
Ann Phillips, director of academic servers, said the registrar's office was using a new system to enter names onto the honor roll, which may have caused the omission.
The names of those students left off the honor roll are listed at http://www news.ku.edu/2005/August/ Aug15/directory.html.
Gaby Souza
Ceremony honors National Guard
A ceremony will begin at 2 p.m. Sunday to commemorate the National Guard Battle of Prairie Dog Creek. The community center in Long Island, Kan., will host the event. The battle occurred Aug. 21, 1867, during the Indian Wars. Colonel Eric Peck, chief of staff for the Kansas Army National Guard, will speak at the event.
This ceremony is one of many planned for this year to celebrate the Kansas National Guard's sequicentennial.
"Celebration Weekend" is on Aug. 27 and 28 with a birthday celebration on Aug. 30 at the Kansas Statehouse.
An open house will last from 1 to 4 p.m. The event is open to public, and visitors can tour the Kansas National Guard Mobile Museum and a
re-enacted encampment. The museum will stay in Long island until Monday, August 22.
For more information about the Kansas Guard's 150th Anniversary, visit www.accesskansas.org.
$17 million donation given to university
Aly Barland
Dolph Simons Jr., chairman of the World Company in Lawrence, and his family will give $8.5 million to each the University of Kansas and the Douglas County Community Foundation. The University and the community foundation will each receive $2.13 million dollars now and the rest to be distributed in the future.
The endowment association announced the gift on Monday.
"We're thrilled with a gift of any size,but we're certainly happy with this gift",Diane Silver said.
The World Corporation owns Sunflower Broadband, the Lawrence Journal-World and eight other newspapers in northeastern Kansas.
— John Jordan
ON THE RECORD
♦ A 21- and 22-year-old, KU students, reported a $60 Kenneth Cole watch, a $60 key with an electric remote and $30 were stolen from their residence sometime between 7:20 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. Aug. 12 on the 1200 block of Ohio Street.
Two KU students, 23 and 22, and two others, 22 and 25, reported that they were assaulted about 3 a.m. Aug. 12 on the 200 block of East 10th Street by a 23- and 27-year-old, whom police later apprehended.
ON THE RECORD
♦ A 53-year-old KU employee reported a $150, 10 1/2-by-4 1/2-inch Katsina doll stolen from the Museum of Anthropology, 1340 Jayhawk Blvd., sometime between 5 p.m. Aug. 11 and 10 a.m. Aug. 12.
- A 25-year-old KU student reported that someone placed a small box containing illegal substances in the student's residence sometime between 9 a.m. Aug. 5 and 1 a.m. Aug. 12 on the 1500 block of Haskell Avenue.
◆ A 20-year-old KU student reported a $500 Canon digital camera, $500 in clothing and $1,000 in other valuables stolen from the student's car sometime between 10 p.m. Aug. 13 and 1 a.m. Aug. 14 on the 1600 block of Crescent Road.
- A 21-year-old KU student reported $2,000 in damage from a brick to the body and window of the student's Isuzu Rodeo sometime between 6 a.m. Aug. 14 and 7:30 a.m. Aug. 15 on the 1200 block of Tennessee Street.
A 21-year-old KU student reported that someone scratched the student's Oldmobile Aero, causing $500 in damage sometime between midnight and 6 a.m. Aug. 14 on the 2000 block of Heatherwood Drive.
A 19-year-old KU student reported a battery involving three individuals, 19, 22 and 22, who were later apprehended by police, at 3:50 a.m. Aug. 16 on the 1400 block of Tennessee Street.
A 22-year-old female KU student reported that she saw a white male with dark, one-inch-long hair combed back watching her through a bedroom window at 5:25 p.m. Aug. 15 in the Oread neighborhood.
CORRECTIONS
◆ Monday's University Daily Kansan contained an error. The Greek Chapters break box omitted Omega Psi Phi and Mu Sigma Upsilon from the list.
In the On The Hill section of the back to school edition of The University Daily Kansan, Phi KappaTheta was listed as a fraternity. Phi Kappa Theta was expelled from the University of Kansas last spring for holding an unregistered party.
ON CAMPUS
The Hall Center for Humanities will host a new faculty reception today from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. in Conference Hall at the Hall Center, 900 Sunnyside Ave.