Zachariah Miller

West Point, 2002

Be Thou At Peace

Posted by Anne McClain on September 10, 2002:

I have yet to find the right words to express emotions the loss of Zach, but I know I should try. I spent an hour every other day with Zach first semester, in SS489 - the class everyone is enrolled in if they are applying for scholarships. Zach shined - he was the class leader even among the 20 (supposedly) brightest kids in the class. I didn't think I belonged...and there were others that didn't beleive I belonged, but not Zach. Zach did not try to show me how smart and gifted he was, but rather he had a little kid curiousity about what I did - what I was learning, because it was a field he had not taken any classes in. He looked at me as someone he could learn from, not someone he was better than. I think that is why he is so well-liked - he did not TRY to make people feel important; to Zach, people TRUELY WERE important. It came as no surprise to anyone that he got the Rhodes Scholarship - he was just the right type of guy...if they hadn't given it to him there probably would have been a mass of e-mails to the committee telling them what an error they had made! I remember going down to NYC for a cocktail party to "train" how to be social last October...he wore a dark suit and a baby blue tie and laughed about the "bold solids" from the C-store everyone chose to wear. Nothing phased him...I learned more from watching how he interacted with others than from what I learned in the SS489 classroom. There would have been six of us going to England this year, and now there are five. Every time I see his name on a eulogy page, or read about it in an article or an e-mail, it hits me just like the first time I found out. It just doesn't seem real, it just doesnt seem right...but we have to beleive there is a reason for everything. It is not beyond me that Zach had a purpose on this earth and that he accomplished it...I just wonder which accomplishment was "the one." My heart goes out to Zach's family. There is nothing I can give you that would ease the pain, but I will do my best to stay in contact, because part of the reason I am succesful is because I had your son/brother/nephew/cousin/grandson/godson Zach in my life. I cannot thank you enough for giving him to the world and to us at the academy... To Zach...I will never forget you or your legacy. No good-byes, because I know you did not really leave...I know you are with us always now. Thank you for being a good example to me. Anne McClain Class of 2002

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