Butch Knightner

Ronnie Durham was like a brother to me.  I, actually, felt like a part of the Durham family as we grew up on Highway 5.  A typical weekend or summer day usually began with one of us calling each other to see what the other was doing.  As we grew older into high school years, we were inseperable.  Ronnie's most memorable trait was that he was liked by everyone.  As I've aged, my memories of that fateful weekend we last saw each other and the day of his death are seared into my soul and haven't faded at all.  I know it's cliche to say, however, in hindsight I realize that Ronnie was ready to go home to be with Jesus.  He exhibited behaviors that we'd (Dary Hasselman and I) never seen before.  His passiveness was replaced with a confident activeness, his "down for whatever" mentality was replaced with a "I think we ought to do this and you shouldn't do that" assertiveness.  Fate orchestrated it such that this event was destined to occur.  He called me that Friday and told me he'd been unable to contact anyone else and that he, initially, wanted to go home to see the Northwestern game that night.  However, he remembered that it was homecoming weekend at Clemson and would come there instead.  I picked him up at Spartanburg Methodist that day and we headed back to Clemson with a delight unlike ever before.  I vividly recall that we partied like never before that weekend.  Yet, Ronnie was just different and Dary and I recognized it immediately.  That Saturday was like a family reunion for us all and we remarked how it could only be better if my cousin, Jack Walker, and our friend, Kim Wylie, were there but we knew that they were in Orangeburg.  Then, as if we spoke them into existence and fate new this was our last rendezvous, Jack called me and told me that they were in Clemson.  Well, the night only got better.  Ronnie was still a little more controlled than the rest of us.  He actually talked me out of a potential altercation that, in the past, he would have been "All-In".  Sunday morning was one of the most beautiful days that I can recall.  As I slept off the previous night, Ronnie climbed up to my loft and told me that I didn't have to take him back to Spartanburg because he was going to ride with Jack and Kim.  I insisted and told him that we'd get up, get with Dary, eat some breakfast, and I'd take him back to Spartanburg soon after.  He asserted that he didn't want me to have to go through all of that when he could just ride with them and it was on their way, anyway.  Reluctantly, I backed down as he'd made his decision with my wellbeing in mind.

I have never forgotten that day nor that weekend and will never forget it.  God has a plan for us all.  His Will will be done and his timing is perfect.  It's tough to accept these truths, however, true faith requires that we believe this.  King David said it best in 2 Samuel 12:23 "But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast?  Can I bring him back again?  I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me." 

Class of 1986, let's celebrate this reunion in the memory of all of our deceased classmates.  God Bless.