Graduations: May 2011 & May 2013
Both held on campus at Great Barrington, MA.
Embedded Files
Julynn & Tay
Julynn & Tay
Suite C
Suite C
Tay & Lauren
Tay & Lauren
Fellas with umbrellas
Fellas with umbrellas
Spacemen
Spacemen
In the infinitely dark days following Taylor's passing, we decided to set up a scholarship in his name, at Simon's Rock, his alma mater. Our other son, Colby, had also attended "The Rock" for his freshman year and then transferred to Middlebury College to complete his degree.
Our dear friends, Ellen Medearis and Rich Superfine, helped us to bring the Taylor Horn Global Studies Scholarship to fruition with a large, anchor donation. Within a few months, thanks to all the generous contributors, including Taylor's friends at The Rock to Carnegie Mellon to National Theater Institute to Fort Meade, and traveling the world from Vermont to Iraq to Pittsburgh, DC and Germany, the scholarship fund was born. It is intended for B.A. students with interests in studying foreign languages, world geography, politics, activism, social justice, international relations, and conflict resolution. Fostering more students to follow in Taylor's footsteps is the best way we know to honor him.
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Since this fund was endowed in 2020, it has doubled in size! Hundreds of friends and family members have made it possible for Simon's Rock to award the Taylor Horn Global Studies Scholarship to a B.A. student, each of the following 5 years.
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A warm hug of thanks to all who helped us memorialize him in this most special way!
***NEWS FLASH***
Simon's Rock is closing its Great Barrington Campus!! We were shocked to get this news! We have been hearing of small liberal arts colleges closing down, over the last few years (many in Vermont), so I guess we should not have been surprised. Simon's Rock will go on, however, as they have a newly acquired campus in NY, adjacent to Bard College.
Taylor's yearbook photo from 2013
For those of you who will visit the (current) Simon's Rock campus, be on the lookout for a granite brick walkway amongst the Mods, on-campus apartments, where Taylor and friends lived for their sophomore year. Our family recently added a brick in memory of Taylor that can be seen here. The '09 indicates the unique way in which The Rock denotes a student's class; Taylor entered in the fall of 2009 and graduated in the spring of 2013.
Taylor and friends modeled this dodgeball fundraiser 'commercial' after the similar Old Spice ones from about 15 years ago. Brad can be seen here with the Simon's Rock mascot!
On one of my visits to the college, even I (his sports playing 40-something mother) got in on the dodgeball action! I further earned my 'badass' name that Taylor had given me previously, due to my late-in-life ice hockey 'career.' Brad also played dodgeball and participated in at least one of the soccer games between students and alums. Both Taylor and his father were goalkeepers.
During the Spring 2011 Dance Concert, Taylor and his good friend Kevin Hu performed a dance that they choreographed as a tribute to their time together at Simon's Rock, their shared dance classes where they were often the only two guys, and graduation, which was just weeks away at showtime. Kevin moved on to MIT after receiving his AA degree, while Taylor stayed on at The Rock to earn his BA degree.
We held Taylor's Memorial Service at the Kellogg Music Center on the Simon's Rock Campus on June 1, 2019. It was a very full house; we ran out of chairs! Friends and family came from across the country. His key professors, friends and relatives paid tribute to one amazing young man; what an impact he had made on the world throughout his life!
Staffa, Scotland 2015
See the "Ambassador" page for remarks Ambassador Laskaris made about Taylor at a separate memorial ceremony held at Kelley Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany.
In my "Mother's Tribute" at the service, I described my animal-loving son, as he spent much of his life exploring the world's creatures, working at a zoo, adventuring with his dogs, caring for and loving all types of critters.
There are two ways to live your life.
One is as though nothing is a miracle.
The other is as though everything is a miracle.
Today we celebrate the miracle.
- Albert Einstein
Taylor loved picking, but especially eating, our Vermont apples! He and his brother were both known to pick baskets full and bring them down to Simon's Rock for all to enjoy. The staff at the dining hall loved Taylor! One time, Taylor showed up with a couple huge zucchinis from our neighbor's garden and, apparently, they were able to put them to good use in some recipe. Here he proudly stands, in a sweater his grandmother (Mom's mom) knitted for his father.
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