By Lori Bredemeyer, Managing Editor
The mother and step-father of Rob Sommerwerck donated $20,000 to the Theatre Department, and Dr. Wayne Barnard, dean of Campus Life, presented the check in Thursday’s theatre small-group Chapel to Adam Hester, chair of the department.
Sommerwerck was killed April 15, 2003, when his car was broadsided by a truck on East Highway 80 near Loop 322. He was 20.
Barnard said James and Sheril Brown of Cypress, Sommerwerck’s step-father and mother, wrote him a letter dated Jan. 10 that he received last week. The $20,000 check was included with the letter, and Barnard said he was “blown away.”
“I think it speaks volumes of our Theatre Department,” Barnard said. “I think a culture exists in our Theatre Department that is very accepting and loving and friendly, and Rob was a recipient of that.”
Although Sommerwerck had not declared a major, Barnard described during the presentation how he found a place to fit in with the theatre students.
“He had found his home, literally, in the Theatre Department,” Barnard said. “In fact, it was in this department that he had his most meaningful sense of belonging here at ACU. … He felt deeply about the love and the acceptance he had found here with his theatre friends.”
Hester said during Chapel that Sommerwerck was the kind of person everybody loved to be around.
“When we think about Rob, we think about a kind of joyousness about Rob,” he said. “He was both goofy and friendly and had one of those open hearts that you just rarely see in people. … I really think about joy when I think about him.”
He said he was quite surprised when he learned Wednesday night about the gift.
“I guess we’re just so stunned at having received it, we haven’t really had time to process it,” Hester said. “It’s an astonishing gift, and I couldn’t be more grateful, especially for the reason it was given. That means a huge, huge deal to us, and I think it also reflects the kind of students that we have. We’re so proud of our students, and I think this shows the nature of who they are.”
Hester said the money is “truly a godsend” as the department was making decisions about how to replace some equipment. He said he hasn’t had much time to consider how to use the money, but he has a few ideas, like replacing a lighting board that will be used in the coming months for productions.
Shenoa Cramer, junior theatre major from Houston, was in a University Seminar Learning Community with Sommerwerck, and she said she was surprised immediately before Chapel when she found out about the gift.
“It’s fitting-I don’t think he was capable of having one bad thought about anybody,” Cramer said. “He wanted to give and give, and so for them giving us this money, it’s just fitting. … Their son was amazing, and it’s just an amazing gift.”
