I am saddened to hear of the death of Yale alum (class of ‘85) Jim MacLaren, who led a difficult but deeply inspiring life.

Jim wanted to be an actor, and after graduating from Yale he was leaving a late-night Manhattan rehearsal on his motorcycle when he was hit by a New York City bus.

Jim almost died, and doctors had to amputate his left leg.

He returned to Yale to try to resume acting training at the Yale School of Drama. During that time, he started dating the woman I’d dated through most of college—we were on a hiatus—which didn’t particularly endear him to me. What made it all the more irritating was that it was virtually impossible to get mad at Jim. I hadn’t met the man, and I never did. But by all accounts, he was just a really brave, decent, solid, admirable, impressive guy—impossible to dislike. Even if he was dating your once-and-future girlfriend.

Refusing to be impeded by his handicap, Jim became a triathlete at a time when there weren’t many triathletes, much less disabled ones. Not satisfied with that, he became the fastest disabled triathlete in the world.

And then something happened to him that is just hard to fathom.

This is from his website:

…On June 6, 1993…he was in Mission Viejo, California, racing another triathlon. Two miles into the bike leg, on a closed course, a traffic marshal misjudged MacLaren’s speed approaching an intersection. The marshal directed a van to cross the street, and the van and MacLaren collided. Hurled into a signpost, MacLaren broke his neck at the C5 vertebrae, paralyzing him.

Devastating.

Yet MacLaren picked up the pieces and went on to start the Choose Living Foundation and become a motivational speaker. Usually I’m fairly cynical about these things, because so many motivational speakers are little more than con men. But Jim was the real thing, and he helped many people. After all, if he could live with such strength after what had happened to him…

Friends of MacLaren who were inspired by his example started the Challenged Athletes Foundation, which has raised $28 million for disabled athletes.

In May 2002, Jim was the subject of a lengthy profile in GQ, written by the pre-EPL Elizabeth Gilbert. It’s a very powerful piece of writing and well worth reading.

I drove until I reached the gates of Pacifica, and there, waiting on the shoulder of the lonely and dusty road, was Jim MacLaren—Yale graduate, football star, actor, amputee, triathlete, quadriplegic, scholar. He was in a wheelchair, but he did not look anything close to helpless. He was a big and handsome man, broad through the chest. He was wearing shorts, and there was a peglike prosthesis attached to the stump of his left leg. His other leg was muscular and tan. A catheter bag half filled with urine hung from the side of his wheelchair, and a thin hose snaked up from it and disappeared under his shorts. He was lighting a cigarette with fingers that were frozen into painful-looking talons, bent and twisted like little Joshua trees. I rolled down my window.

“Jim MacLaren, I presume?”

He smiled. “How’d you recognize me?”

“You smoke?” I said.

“Don’t start,” he warned.

Some other friends of MacLaren started a group, Friends of Jimmy Mac, and a website to help fund his medical care, and MacLaren posted his news on the site from time to time. His most recent post was on July 18….

It is a Sunday in July. Although I am on a bit of shaky ground, I’m actually feeling pretty good. The reason for this is that although I’m in the middle of another bladder infection the oral antibiotics seem to be working. This means that I did not have to go to the hospital. So far, no IV and although I don’t yet feel wonderful, it seems like I am getting better.

Age 47, MacLaren died on August 30th. It’s hard to imagine surviving what he survived, and I’m quite sure that I couldn’t have transformed such pain into such generosity. I never knew him, but like so many others I will miss Jim MacLaren.