A Memorial to Johnny Smolik

A Memorial to Johnny Smolik

Johnny Smolik was a member of RHS, Class of 1977. 

I’m not sure when I first met Johnny, but if you knew him, you probably remember him with a huge smile on his face and always the life of the party. He could say the most funniest things ever and make your day all that much brighter.  He was always cracking people up doing or saying something that you could not imagine.

During classes in school, he was not always the most attentive student, but I’m sure you remember him being in your class or spending time with him in detention. Johnny was not at all a bad kid, he just had so much energy to sit in useless and boring classes as many of the “Wild child” kids did.

He had this charisma, this sense of being such a unique individual, that you always knew he was something special. Johnny was also a pretty good-looking kid, which was part of his charm. His ability to make a situation so much lighter, was certainly uncanny. He could say something so outlandish and then just smile and totally diffuse the situation.

I remember during our Sophomore year playing HS football, Johnny would arrive to practice late, because of being stuck in detention. That would make our head coach, Mr Deskin, irate to say the least, so there we would see Johnny carrying a stand up dummy blocking pad up and down the hill doing coach imposed “laps”.  Johnny was also always talking and just chattering away. One of our better football coaches, Mr Airehart, started calling Johnny “Monkey Boy” since he had all of this raw energy.  I remember even before one of our football games, the coach took some athletic tape and affixed a banana to the upright goalpost and when he scored a touchdown, Johnny ran over and took the banana and ate it right there. Well, nobody knew what was going on except Johnny and all of us, his teammates.  Our entire team all laughed so very hard… and I remember that event, even to this day, over 40 something years ago!

It also seemed that later in life, Johnny found religion, which works well for many people, it seems to be true especially for all of those “wild child” individuals who were, let’s say, had ants in their pants as youngsters, and you all know who I am talking about.  Johnny had plenty of experience being wild in his younger days, which was part of what made up his personality. Apparently later in life, Johnny found what he needed in religion and it helped make him a better man I guess. It took the edge off and made him maybe better focus his energy more on where he was going rather than running amuck without a vector to follow. It seems like many of our “wild child” youngsters we grew up with have remarkably found what they needed in religion. As Johnny believed, he has gone to meet his maker and find his place in heaven, undoubtedly making everyone around him laugh and smile like we all know Johnny could do!  I can see him smiling that wide smile he had making everyone around him glad to have spent any amount of time with him.

Johnny, you will be missed by many of us, your friends and family, and those who’s life you had touched. I wish I could of been back there to have visited you and to have seen your smile just one more time.  Before they took Johnny off of life support, they harvested Johnny’s internal organs so he could donate them to others who could continue to live life with his generous and thoughtful donations, still continuing to give of himself in his final hours here on Earth.

We know your pain is now gone and now we all must live with the sadness of not having you here to keep us smiling and laughing as only you could do. We live with this pain, we grieve together as a body of people that were blessed enough to have you consider us your friends. Please know we are all saddened much by your passing, but we are all a little bit better people having known you and having your generous personality that has touched our inner soul.

My you Rest in Peace, my friend, and may the sadness we all feel be replaced with laughter with wonderful smiles on our faces, just as you have given us so very many times before. Look down upon your family and friends and give us all strength to accept your moving on to a better place.

Thanks again Johnny for all the smiles. We all love you and will miss you my friend!  

God speed, Johnny Smolik!