April 29, 2018
BRIDGEPORT- Tara Secret-Seckman still remembers the faces. She remembers the kindness. She remembers the words and the emotions just after Christmas this past year as they laid her father, Robert “Bobby” Secret, to rest.
She’s certain her sister Ashlee Secret-Barkley remembers. And she’s certain her mother Sharon does as well.
It’s all still very fresh and, in many cases, still very raw.
Bobby Secret had passed away on Christmas Eve. He was still a robust 74-year-old still making impacts on lives well beyond his Clarksburg residence and more than likely the county and state he called home. It was hammered home to the family, in the best ways possible, time and time again during the funeral services for Secret.
“I remember during the viewing a high school baseball player came up to our family and said that his own father didn’t make it all of his games, but my father made it to all of his games and encouraged him,” said Seckman. “The young man came by himself. There were so many wonderful things said, but that moment just stood out.”
There’s a reason for that. It defined Bobby Secret the man. It defined who he was as a human being. For decades, Secret was often defined by many for his athletic skills (which was never a bad thing) and as impressive as those feats were they paled to what he was as a father, a brother, a husband, a grandfather, a friend and so much more.
For those not in that immediate social circle, a rather large one for Bobby Secret, they may have still heard his name because of those athletics. Mention the greatest athletes in Harrison County history and his name is on the short list. The 1960 Washington Irving graduate, who ended up with a football scholarship to Notre Dame was – by every account I’ve ever heard – that good.
When he passed away, the stories fired up once again about his athletic exploits. So, too, did the stories of his kindness and friendship.
Word of his passing soon made the rounds. Eventually, a former classmate – Diana Calverley Haskell – got word of her friend and classmate passing and she emailed others. The email not only informed others that their friend had died, but that she was seeing if anyone would be willing to give their time to help set up a scholarship fund.
Several people responded and it gave birth to what should soon be the Bobby Lee Secret Memorial Scholarship. One of those individuals responding and getting involved was his friend Jim Van Voorhis from Woodstock, Ga.
“His memory is still very vivid to me as a teammate, a classmate, as a friend and as a first-class individual. As for sports, he actually played for the varsity as a freshman at WI, which was unheard of at that time,” said Van Voorhis. “He became a starter way before anyone else in the class, but he also was always the first to congratulate everyone for doing their job when he was the star. Two things were clear with him and that he was enormously gifted as an athlete and as a person.”
Van Voorhis actually knew that before he got to high school. He recalled watching a baseball game at the old Clearlite Baseball Field in Clarksburg. Secret, he said, did something amazing.
“He got up to bat and hit the ball over the left field screen that was 30 feet high. I watched a lot of games there and no one ever did that and he was just 14,” said Van Voorhis. “If we didn’t already know it, we knew it then that we were going to see some amazing athletic feats over the next few years.”
Bobby Secret was a four-sport Phenom at WI. He excelled in football, baseball, basketball and track and he drew the attention of colleges across the nation. Although he graduated from Salem College, Secret began his college career after accepting a scholarship from Notre Dame to play football and, at that time, it didn’t get much bigger than that.
“He was 6’1 and 180 pounds as a senior, which was a decent size then, but probably not by today’s standard,” said Van Voorhis, who was quick to point out Secret was also a class officer and a heavily involved student in activities away from the athletic field. “What separated him from everyone else that was gifted was that he was 100 percent all of the time in games, practice and in everything he did. He was a motivated person and a competitor who didn’t want anyone to beat him. It defined him in many ways.”
Anyone who didn’t believe Secret’s desire to go unbeaten probably wasn’t around when he faced his biggest opponent ever later in life. And he stared down the nastiest of foes when he was told he had no chance.
“He was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2007. They gave him two months to two years at the most to live,” said Seckman. “Ten years later he never let cancer get the best of him. He died after getting the flu and it weakened his heart and his heart went into arrhythmia. Cancer never beat him.”
The disease probably didn’t know the competitor in Secret. It didn’t know about his athletic prowess that he took to South Bend and brought home to Salem College. It didn’t know about him serving as an educator and teaching math with a kind and gentle hand. The disease didn’t know of his mentoring of hundreds of youngsters as a baseball coach (and also the cousin of BHS Coach Robert Shields who was a regular with Robert’s late father Timbuck Shields at dozens and dozens of games). The disease didn’t know he still had much to give when it decided to enter his life.
Cancer didn’t know Bobby Secret. Cancer never had a chance to stop the impact a man was making to all around him rolling with the force of an avalanche.
“My sister gave her eulogy and called him a warrior and she was right. He was not giving up because whatever he needed to do to beat it, he did. He lived to serve others and cancer was just something in his way,” said Seckman. “I think it was his competitive nature that helped him beat back cancer and I think he made it a mission to inspire others who had to battle cancer. He wanted to serve those people and make an impact in their lives.”
And thanks to six of his classmates, his impact will likely increase in the years ahead. His memory, it is believed, will be shared with a new generation by those who hopefully will get a chance to earn a $1,000 scholarship annually in his name.
Van Voorhis said it was easy to do for a man who still inspires him.
“The first time I saw him since high school was at our 40th class reunion and it was like we were never apart,” said Van Voorhis. “After that, we weren’t in contact until I learned he was sick and I emailed him to tell him I was praying for him. He emailed me back and we built an entirely new relationship based on our faith in God. I think Bobby would be pleased with what we’re going to do.”
What they’re doing, as mentioned above, is setting up the scholarship fund. Haskell, Van Voorhis, David Andre, David Ellis, Christopher Hill and John Madia already have permission from the family and have already done the legwork to set up the scholarship fund.
While funds have been donated by the group, the goal is to raise $20,000 to make the scholarship a permanent scholarship. It will be awarded annually to a student-athlete in Harrison County applying for it and reviewed by Seckman and Barkley – the daughters – and members of the committee.
The hope is to have it ready to go for 2019 graduates. But, they need your financial help and here’s how to get on board and raise the funds by June 30.
The scholarship will be administered by Your Community Foundation of North Central West Virginia, Inc. If you want to avoid a 2.2 percent processing fee for online donations, you can write a check to YCF, P.O. Box 409, Morgantown, WV 26507 with “Secret Scholarship” in the note line.
Individuals wishing for the convenience of an on-line donation can visit the Web site, www.ycfwv.org. Click the orange “Donate” button and then click “Here” to donate by credit or debit card. Type “Secret Scholarship” for the fund to which you wish to donate after you fill out the credit card information.
Donations are tax deductible.
YCF is a highly respected organization in the area. It is a charitable, non-profit organization that encourages, develops and manages endowment funds and uses the net proceeds to support a long list of community programs and scholarships. The foundation manages assets and pledged assets of more than $12 million and administers more than 160 separate funds.
“You still feel special, just like when dad was with us, when you’re out and someone comments ‘you should have seen your dad play’ or how ‘he packed them in at Hite field.’ We appreciated that tremendously,” said Seckman. “What his classmates are doing, though, is hard to put into words. We were in awe of the gesture and are so thankful.
“Everyone believes their father is the greatest, but when a group of people go out of their way to devote time, energy and money for something like that, it says he really did make an impact,” she continued. “I think we were right. He’s probably the greatest.”
Certainly, he’s on the shortlist for that argument as well.
