Around 7 p.m. on the night of Sep. 23, John “Dutch” Vandegrift, father of Matthew Ryan Vandegrift, who is the namesake of our school, was killed in a car crash on Colorado Highway 172. That night, a man named David Lemon lost control of his car, and in order to avoid rear ending the slowed traffic in front of him, veered across the center line into oncoming traffic, causing a head on collision with the car containing John Vandegrift and his wife, Mary Jane Vandegrift. While Mary Jane came away with only broken ribs and is in stable condition, John Vandegrift was killed in the accident.

Over that weekend, principal Charlie Little shared this thought in an email with the Viper staff.

“Since our campus opened in 2009, we have developed a deep and profound relationship with the family. I like to think the naming of the school, and the traditions and honor we have brought to the Vandegrift name played a meaningful part in their healing process (for Matthew). Many of you have become close to the family, and I know this will be difficult for you. If you ever met Dutch Vandegrift, you would understand the true loss to this world. He was a patriot, father, and remarkable role model for each of us.”

I never knew John Vandegrift personally, but each year he and his family would visit the school on Apr. 21, known to us as Valor Day, commemorating the day that Matthew Vandegrift died and honoring his legacy. John usually would tell us about Matthew’s life- how committed he was to school, his reputation as an honest and kind man. He told us of how Matthew served as an example in high school, excelled in college, and how he arrived at the decision to serve his country through the military, in which he would make the ultimate sacrifice. John always thanked the school’s staff and student body for our upholding the same values that Matthew did and keeping his legacy alive. While John spent that time talking about his son, his speech revealed just as much about his own character. The fatherly pride that he had for his son and his sacrifice shone as he told his story, and the gratitude he felt towards the school community was expressed heartfeltly and often as he talked. He sacrificed a lot, flying out from his home in Colorado every year, just so he could express to us how thankful and honored he was by our respecting his son’s legacy. He obviously held the school morals that back our “Second to None” mentality in high regard and did our school and the country a great service by raising such an upstanding son.

I think the thing that shakes me most about his death is the loss of his presence in the lives of future classes to come through this school. This year’s freshman class will never know John Vandegrift. Come Valor Day this year, he will not be present physically, and that has a huge impact. It makes me wonder about our school’s future 10 or 20 years down the road, if Mary Jane Vandegrift dies or Matthew’s brother, Barrett Vandegrift. What will the future graduating classes, who will have never known the living family of the legacy they uphold, truly understand about Matthew Vandegrift? Will his life and death and what he stood for mean as much to them? I personally feel a much stronger connection to our school through hearing about the lives of those who knew the man that inspired everything this school represents.

But John Vandegrift’s story doesn’t have to end here. Just like his outstanding son, his legacy lives on in the lives of his wife and remaining son, and in the lives of Vandegrift students. We who remember his words will continue to live in a way that makes him proud, and serve as an example to all who come after us. We know and understand the “Second to None” standard that Matthew, and now his father, have left behind to guide us. And we will teach the future classes that pass through these school doors what Matthew and John Vandegrift lived and died for-what it means to be a Viper and that we will never walk alone.