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Ryan Tullus Dempsey was born three weeks early in Walter
Reed Army Hospital, in Washington D. C. When he was almost one year old he moved to Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey for 6 months
and then to Tonasket, Washington for three months while we waited for housing in our next duty station in Wildflecken, Germany.
Ry spent the next 3 and a half years in Germany where
he first learned to snow ski, and attended and graduated from Pre-school. We then moved to Ft. Benning, Georgia where
he met his first "best friend", Andy Brandenburg, who was with him through Kindergarten and the first two years of Elementary
School. He was involved in T-Ball, soccer, Cub Scouts and spent a good bit of time at the swimming pool trying to garner
the attention of a sweet little girl named Tessa.
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Next,
it was off to Clifton, Virginia, with more soccer, basketball and quite a bit of street hockey. Ry finished Elementary
School here and went to Middle School with friends Kevin, Lane, Craig, Leslie, Ellie, and Kate.
The next move would have to be considered Ry's
favorite, as we headed across the Pacific to Schofield Barracks. Ryan loved Hawaii. He often said that when he
was grown his dream was to live up on the North Shore with some of his friends and a dog of his own; and stay on the beach
or spend the day skate boarding. Ry played some basketball and soccer here but he spent most of his free time skate
boarding, which he loved.
From Hawaii we were off to Carlisle, Pennsylvania
for the Army War College, where Ryan told us that he wasn't going to go out and make any friends at Carlisle; that he was
just going to lay low for that year as he knew he wouldn't be living there enough time to invest himself. As you know,
Ryan was too much of a "people-person" to do this, and was out making friends from the first day. Ryan graduated from
Carlisle High School in May of 2000. I think he made more friends at Carlisle than any place he lived and leaving, after
only a year, was one of the most difficult things for him to do.
After a couple of
months in Ft. Eustis, Virginia, Ryan went off to Harding University in Searcy, Arkansas; which was the alma mater
of his dad, mom and sister. Ryan was not happy here and transferred after one semester, to Cameron University in Lawton,
Oklahoma. He went to Cameron for a year but had difficulty focusing on school and stayed out after his sophomore year
to try to find a job. He had decided that he would transfer back to Harding the following fall and was planning on moving
out of Lawton in June. But on May 2, 2002 Ryan was taken from us. It is somehow appropriate that Ryan died just
three months before his 21st birthday, as I don't think Ry ever wanted to become an adult. I know he was and forever
will be just a happy, fun-loving kid at heart.
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