THE PAT TILLMAN FOUNDATION, July 30, 2004

July 30, 2004
Sam Farmer
Los Angeles Times

About a dozen neatly stacked boxes line the back wall of the garage of Alex Garwood's home in Los Gatos, Calif. They hold hundreds of mementos - letters, poems, drawings, military medals, American flags and other keepsakes - all given to the family of Pat Tillman, Garwood's brother-in-law, in honor of the former NFL player who wordlessly walked away from a lucrative football contract to become an Army Ranger.

Tillman, who enlisted with his brother after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was killed April 22 in a firefight in Afghanistan. His story riveted the nation, even though he took pains to be as anonymous as possible, never speaking publicly about his decision to leave his job as an NFL safety to serve his country.

Garwood lifted a box off the stack and opened the top. He gently set aside a pair of Purple Heart medals well-wishers sent - the family received 12 of those - and pulled out a pair of scuffed military boots.

"These," he said, "just blew me away."

As the unpaid executive director of the recently formed Pat Tillman Foundation, Garwood is carefully walking the line between respecting Tillman's wishes that he be treated like any other soldier, and letting the world know more about Tillman to help others in his name.

"It's a little bit ironic that in this whole thing he didn't want notoriety and yet he got it," Garwood said. "But the fact is we're not going out and talking about him as a football player only and trying to hawk bobble-heads. There's a right way to do this and a wrong way. We firmly believe that we're doing this the right way and for the right reasons."

The board of the foundation also includes Tillman's brother, Kevin, and widow, Marie. The charity organization is establishing an education program featuring speakers who will visit schools and try to inspire students to make positive changes in the world. Tillman was both a surfer dude and a scholar, a guy whose long hair and flip-flops belied his dedication in the classroom. He graduated summa cum laude from Arizona State in 3 1/2 years.

"We want to create educational programs, targeting junior high and high school kids, where you go in and use Pat as an example to talk about doing the right thing, to talk about someone who's a complete person," said Garwood, 32, whose wife, Christine, is the older sister of Tillman's widow. "We want to help provide kids with tools for questioning things, make sure that they have a deep understanding of the issues, and also provide them the tools to take action.

"Pat loved to get at the root of something and really come up with a conclusion. And he came up with a lot of his own. But he was never arrogant enough to tell you what you should be thinking. We want to give kids the tools so they can act on their own conclusions. It's an anti-apathy program, if you will."

Garwood left his sales job at Brocade Communications to run the foundation. He said more than 400 donations have been made, although he declined to specify exactly how much has been given so far. Other tributes to Tillman have been made by the Arizona Cardinals, who intend to name a plaza outside their new stadium in his honor, and the Pacific 10 Conference, which has renamed its defensive player of the year award after him.

Tillman, who was 27, was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, and was given the Audie Murphy Patriotism Award, among other honors. The Fire Department of New York has suggested making Tillman an honorary firefighter.

The family is working with both Arizona State and the NFL to make Tillman's jerseys available, with proceeds going to the foundation. At Arizona State, the Sun Devils have renamed their stadium tunnel the Tillman Tunnel and a nearby light tower - the one Tillman scaled in his more pensive moments - the Tillman Tower. The Cardinals will honor him with a halftime tribute at their season opener. The Tillman family has received several book and movie offers but so far has politely declined those.

"We've told them, 'Thank you. We appreciate it. We're really not interested at this point,' " Garwood said. "We've kept all of those on file in case that ever changes, but certainly right now that's not the direction we're going."