Chris Farley
Although Chris Farley was not a member of the TIP staff at Kansas, he nevertheless served a brief but pivotal role in the first week of the second term of 2006 for many on the TIP instructional staff. A counselor at a separate camp also staying at Oliver, his main role was to insure that his children were selecting for themselves nutritional and well-balanced meals, rich in fruits and vegetables, and including one glass of orange juice and one of milk. Along with his cohort, Eyebrow Stud Guy, Chris Farley would hold an audience every meal in the dining hall to which his camp flocked, eagerly anticipating their leaders' solemn consent to their tray's selected contents.
Many would delight in Chris Farley's heartwarming, cheery glow, as he often traipsed around the dining hall trying to find a seat; then, furrowing his brow in dismay, he would immediately consume his meal in all of 2 seconds in a spectacle to which few were privileged witnesses. Many TIP staff also lauded his emphasis of physcial exercise, as they recalled how often he would engage his children in windsprints in the dead heat of a summer afternoon, while he rigorously stood off to the side, blowing athletically on his whistle. Truly, he is a leader as well as a scholar.
Repeating such excellent performances as that of the 'Bus Driver' in Billy Madison (1995), Chris Farley would sometimes steal children's lunches, and eat them outside near his 1988 Aerostar minivan. Tragically, in the last week of his camp, Eyebrow Stud Guy became suddenly trapped in an Oliver Hall stairwell, where he was trying to conduct a meeting. He tried shouting for help, but the noise from TIPsters so drowned out his cries that he fell ill with a fatal case of cholera. It was Chris Farley who eventually discovered his fallen comrade, and after conducting the funeral rites, Chris Farley departed, never to be seen again.
Chris Farley taught us all something in that short moment: that we could persevere if only we believed in ourselves. We said we couldn't, he said we could. He taught us how to enjoy life and to never regret the day. For that we are thankful, and we wish him the best.