Andrew King

Andrew Patterson King was born in Austin, Texas on March 11, 1996. From the beginning, he was filled with joy and enthusiasm for the world around him, proclaiming with delight at three years old, “I’m so happy I was born!”

Growing up in Austin, he attended Parkside Community School with dear friends and neighbors. Every summer, Andrew experienced Texas adventures with dad, David, and brother, Christopher, on their annual “Camp Daddy” trips and later participated in Camp Flaming Arrow, a group that made many fun memories. Andrew spent middle school at St. Francis, where he loved connecting with friends on long walks at lunch and playing Magic: The Gathering in the afternoons.  It was there he aced the PSAT as a seventh grader, qualifying him to attend Duke TIP summer programs, which he boldly did, despite profound shyness. With his ambition sparked, he continued to push himself by attending a Latin immersion summer program in Italy, and later, spending a semester away in New York City. Andrew graduated from Khabele High School in Austin, a lovely community where he enjoyed the friendship of peers, especially in Outdoor Leadership, and the mentorship of numerous valued advisors, particularly with his Independent Study in American History, and his YouTube Channel: Random History with Andrew. True to his determined nature, he undertook SAT preparation on his own, achieving just under a perfect score. When he received the results, he was thrilled, and then said, “Every human being is precious – this doesn’t make me different”.

He briefly attended his dream college, Vanderbilt University, when he was stricken with schizoaffective disorder. He then joined family in Albuquerque, where, despite his illness, he excelled in his study of economics at the University of New Mexico, and for a brief time, ‘held down the fries’ at Chic-fil-A, and was a member of Phi Delta Theta Fraternity, serving as an officer, surrounded by the extraordinary kindness of the Phi Delt brothers. Next, he taught himself enough programming to join a Galvanize Bootcamp. In recent days, he had been volunteering on the repair team with Habitat for Humanity and in the warehouse at Roadrunner Foodbank. He always enjoyed archery, hiking, and his very good dog, Finley.

Andrew is survived by a loving family and treasured friends. We will forever remember his love of literature, history, philosophy, language, music, and comedy, his passion for justice, and his ardent dreams of public service. Above all, we will remember and celebrate his delightful, generous, brave, and intrepid spirit.

We are proud not only of the rich variety of experiences Andrew pursued prior to his illness, but of the strength, courage, endurance, good humor, and determination with which he fought to overcome schizoaffective disorder for the past seven years.

In memory of Andrew and the countless others who have lost either their lives or their quality of life to mental illness, we encourage you to understand those illnesses not as psychological states with which they struggle, but as brain disorders – medically, not so different from seizure disorders, for example. Pray for increasingly effective medications.

We also invite you to read or listen to the book, Brain Energy, by Dr. Chris Palmer. Although this new understanding of brain disorders was too new or too late, ultimately, to protect Andrew, it charts new territory in the following ways: it distinguishes between psychological disturbances which might need treatment, but are a normal part of life, and brain disorders, which are not that; it offers a simple definition of what a brain disorder is, providing clarity that can reduce fear and stigma, and improve early intervention; and it sheds light on the powerful discovery that our mitochondria can be positively influenced to turn off problematic expressions of our genes and can facilitate our bodies’ self-healing processes. Maybe most promising is the application of this new understanding for prevention…An astounding percentage of the population has a serious mental illness. And the number is growing.  Andrew reminded us that ‘every human being is precious’. We think Andrew, with all his enthusiasm for life and his wish to make a positive contribution, provides a meaningful example of what not only the individual and their loved ones lose, but what society loses, to these illnesses. Brain Energy offers hope for preventing and reversing them. Please visit brainenergy.com

May we all remember to be kind – it can be hard to imagine the burden another might be carrying.

On the Death of the Beloved by John O’Donohue

Though we need to weep your loss,

You dwell in that safe place in our hearts,

Where no storm or night or pain can reach you.

Your love was like the dawn

Brightening over our lives

Awakening beneath the dark

A further adventure of color.

The sound of your voice

Found for us

A new music

That brightened everything.

Whatever you enfolded in your gaze

Quickened in the joy of its being;

You placed smiles like flowers

On the altar of the heart.

Your mind always sparkled

With wonder at things.

Though your days here were brief,

Your spirit was live, awake, complete.

We look towards each other no longer

From the old distance of our names;

Now you dwell inside the rhythm of breath,

As close to us as we are to ourselves.

Though we cannot see you with outward eyes,

We know our soul's gaze is upon your face,

Smiling back at us from within everything

To which we bring our best refinement.

Let us not look for you only in memory,

Where we would grow lonely without you.

You would want us to find you in presence,

Beside us when beauty brightens,

When kindness glows

And music echoes eternal tones.

When orchids brighten the earth,

Darkest winter has turned to spring;

May this dark grief flower with hope

In every heart that loves you.

May you continue to inspire us:

To enter each day with a generous heart.

To serve the call of courage and love

Until we see your beautiful face again

In that land where there is no more separation,

Where all tears will be wiped from our mind,

And where we will never lose you again.