In Memory of Ciaran Kelly

“Ha ha, you’re not going to get rid of me that easy!”

It will surprise no one that this was the first sentence Ciaran Kelly said to me a week or so after the first signs of his health concerns. It was “classic Kelly” on the phone that day, words flooding out of his mouth almost faster than I could process them, that unique, honey-laced “Fast Times at Ridgemount High/Bill & Ted’s Big Adventure on speed” accent on full display. It was impossible to think something could be seriously wrong being on the receiving end of his relentless optimism and rapid-fire jokes. As usual with talking to Ciaran, there was no other way to feel other than that everything was going to be ok.

The energy that flowed from Ciaran – that explosive cocktail of humour, optimism and energy was impossible to miss. We saw it as colleagues from the first day in his tenure as Marketing Director at UNYP, as he made the rounds to all offices, notebook in hand wanting everyone’s perspective on how to make things better. He wanted to share his ideas as well, and wanted your honest reaction – real honest reaction, not feigned. There was an unmistakable feeling that things had changed, and that there were brighter days ahead.

Enviably, hundreds of students over the years got to experience this every week. I have thought about this again and again over the last month or so, and I am sure that I have never, ever, met someone who loved teaching more than Ciaran. There wasn’t a semester that went by, when after offering him a course for the upcoming semester, in the same conversation he was already asking about the next one. “Can you PLEASE find me a class for Spring, man? I will do anything!” When I would soberly reply that the only unstaffed course was something completely out of his field, the response was often, “I can do that!” And you knew he could! He wasn’t, of course, in it for the money, he was professionally engaged elsewhere in the corporate world. He just loved it, plain and simple. And the mix of students at UNYP he loved best of all.

Observing his classes was sometimes a completely out-of-world experience: The criteria on the form for evaluation didn’t apply – and you didn’t care! It was all over the place – stories of his youngest child throwing up on his lap at breakfast, to his oldest daughter dressing in black so as not to be caught being on the street during lockdown, to putting the billboard for the company he worked for directly opposite their biggest competitor, to the latest scheme he had for the American football team he was coaching….Every time after going back to my office I said to myself, “so how do I fill in this bloody form???” You were just as caught up as the students in the electric energy of the class, and the expectations implicit in the role of the ‘teacher’ melted away in the overwhelming feeling that you were left with after leaving the room: Inspiration. With the highest course evaluations the history of the Communication and Media major, and top ten in the school, the impact was clear.

I knew Ciaran only from school, and never had any contact with him outside of work. But as you all can imagine, many, many did. I not only admired him for the positive energy he carried with him, but also for extending that in being a father to six children. Over the years I have created an image in my mind of the fantastic, jubilant chaos of what must be the Kelly household. In a completely different context, again, a source of inspiration.

When doctors finally diagnosed Ciaran’s condition, he wrote an email to explain the situation, and how he expected it would affect his role at UNYP. It was a serious subject, but you can probably guess how he addressed it. It wasn’t an illness, it was just a “nasty little beast”. He didn’t want to talk about the present, but to make sure we were counting on him for Fall 2022, a year away. But the last sentence said it all about Ciaran Kelly, the teacher:

“I tried to tell the doctor, that I need to teach, it provides me energy…he said…nope…you gonna rest, man…no skype teaching, no class teaching till Fall… 

This is the saddest email I ever wrote in my life!!!!”

Written by

Todd Nesbitt