Loyola swimming & water polo

Despite his rigorous academic schedule, Matt made time for both swimming and water polo while attending Loyola. He loved his time in the pool! In senior year he was named captain of the teams, and earned the nickname “Skip”. Click here to check out some of the action from the 2005-2006 season!

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Duke & Coach K

There’s a really interesting story about how Matt found his way to Duke, and it started with a writing assignment in 5th grade English class. Guess who responded back? Read more…

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Vanderbilt MD/PhD

Matt graduated from Duke on 2010, spent the next two years as a research assistant at NIH in Bethesda, MD, then entered the “Medical Scientist Training Program” at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN in 2012. He spent the next seven years getting trained as both a doctor and medical researcher, with particular interests in radiology and cancer. You can read a copy of his PhD dissertation here.

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Diagnosis

In 1949 an accomplished American author named John Gunther published a memoir about his son Johnny who had passed a couple years earlier at the age of 17. He entitled the book “Death Be Not Proud”, borrowing the name from the famous sonnet by John Donne. In the 1970s the book was adapted into a television movie starring Robbie Benson. There are a lot of similarities between Johnny Gunther’s experience and Matt’s – with one very notable difference, which says a lot about the education Matt received at Loyola Blakefield. Read more…

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Men for Others

Shortly after Matt died, I received an email from his swimming coach at Duke, Dan Collella, asking for my home address. Read more…