Kevin McDevitt

Kevin Joseph McDevitt

I first met Kevin during my first year at MLC. We became fast friends. We played and enjoyed life together for the ensuing 32 years. Kevin enjoyed life but he really treasured the people that made up the fabric of his life. He truly cared about people and their well-being. He cared nearly to a fault. He was truly the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off of his back. Often Kevin would change his plans to help someone else with their car, or moving, or whatever was needed. I know that good karma was important to Kevin but most of the time I don’t think it even occurred to him that the things he did for others were so valued. Kevin gave simply and without any sense of obligation. For Kevin, it came naturally; it was like breathing.

One of my wife’s favorite stories is about the Christmas we had moved into our first home. I was in Japan on business, and Christmas was very near. Kevin called and asked her what her favorite kind of Christmas tree was and how tall she wanted it to be. He was going up to Breitenbush and wanted to get us a tree. I wasn’t due home until right before Christmas. My wife told Kevin she liked Nobles. No problem says he. A couple of days later Kevin showed up at the front door with a Noble fir. “The most perfect tree.” Kevin had cut it “from the side of a hill,” probably a cliff, knowing him. When I came home I was greeted by a lit up and decorated Christmas tree.

Kevin was a man of integrity. Integrity manifested itself in many ways in Kevin’s life. Always, Kevin was good to his word but I also admired the many other ways Kevin stood true to his beliefs. One in particular was the way Kevin tried to live a relatively low-impact life style. He understood the impact we have on mother earth.

If Kevin didn’t know you he seemed like a man of few words, unless, of course, you exhibited poor driving skills around him. But with friends and family Kevin really opened up, and would open me up. A phone call could become an evening of visiting.

Fix things? Kevin could lay his hand on the hood of the car and know what was wrong and how to fix it, without looking. Any repair on anything was just, "All you have to do is ...." He was a brilliant man; his talents were not only in fixing things of course, but also in any kind of problem solving; he was one of a kind. He was very intuitive in the nature of all things. He was an old and beautiful soul .…

Kevin was definitely a kid magnet, a human jungle gym. He and kids were on a level playing field when it came to having a little fun. His smile and twinkling eyes just teasing, playing, laughing, talking. My kids loved him and they had a lot of fun times with him.

Kevin understood the impermanence of life. A poem that my father often recites says it best:

The clock of life is wound but once

And no one has the power

To tell just when the hands will stop

On what day or on what hour

This is all the time we have

So live it with a will

Don’t wait until tomorrow,

The hands may then be still

Years ago Kevin and I made a pact that we would never trade money for happiness. Kevin always put quality of life over material gain. Kevin lived life to its fullest. He loved his family and friends to the fullest. But when it comes to the love-of-his-life his cup ranneth over. The love between Kevin and Kirsten is the stuff of fairy tales and legend. I know they are soul mates and will be together again.

So long, old friend. I love you and all that you stand for. (Emery I.)

KEVIN McDEVITT attended MLC from 1968 to 1974, joined by his five younger brothers and sisters. Smart, self-possesed, active and prominent, among other things Kevin is remembered as part of the "takeover gang" in the 1970 student film A Moving Picture, and in February 1971, when 28 MLC students and adults got snowed in at Breitenbush Hot Springs (where the McDevitts owned a cabin), Kevin was one of the pair of students who legendarily snowshoed out to meet rescuers (see the article below). Kevin died far too young, of cancer, on August 4, 2002. He is remembered here by his closest friend, in the tribute given at Kevin's memorial, and by his employer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Article from the Portland Oregonian, March 1,1971, reporting the stranding of 28 MLC students, teachers, aides, and parents at Breitenbush Hot Springs near Detroit, OR, under eight feet of sudden snow. With no phone or radio communication available, Kevin McDevitt, along with Pete Lowry, elected to attempt to snowshoe out to get help. They were well on their way when they met a small army of snowmobilers coming in to rescue the castaways. Pete stepped up as front-man, but it was Kevin who knew the area and roads and had the wilderness skills. Following the incident (also described by Tim Hunt in his 2018 video interview), most, as mentioned, said they kind of wished they hadn't been rescued so quickly! (inset: image of full front page; from NewsBank, Inc., courtesy of Jevan Williams).