‘He wanted to move the world’: McMaster grad Adam Chiaravalle gone too soon, but his legacy lives on
Adam Chiaravalle was like the community gardens he championed with gusto: a life force nourishing all who discovered his gifts.
Family, friends and academic colleagues are grieving that the award-winning McMaster graduate, and advocate for food sustainability, is gone far too soon. He died Nov. 6 at 26 years old.
Chiaravalle's drive and charisma inspired most everyone he met, from younger students he offered essay writing advice, to university administrators he charmed and cajoled.
Adam was one of the most positive, energetic and passionate people I ever met, who left everyone he connected with better off," said Dave Heidebrecht, manager of McMaster University's office of community engagement.
In 2016, in his third-year at Mac, Chiaravalle was energized to become an activist for locally grown food - a local food marauder" - as The Spectator put it.
In a piece he wrote in the Spec, Chiaravalle promoted self-sufficient permaculture agriculture systems, to reconnect us with nature and value its preservation."
His love for food, cooking and getting involved was inspired by his mother, Antoinette, who was a constant presence in his life.
Talking to The Spectator, she listed off some of his initiatives, that included the McMaster Community Garden and Stinson neighbourhood garden.
When Chiaravalle won a $3,000 award for advocacy, he donated the money to support a student farmers' market.
He also resurrected student cooking classes, hosting them in an old kitchen on campus that he set about renovating.
Carlos Figueira, McMaster's director of facility services, said they will find a way to finish the kitchen and build a permaculture garden in his honour.
He was so special to us," he said. Adam had a million ideas, and wanted to move the world. Given the time to do it, he probably would have."
On a podcast three years ago, Chiaravalle said he felt activism got a bad rap: I don't understand it; activism is about pursuing your passions and making connections and relationships to get to your goal."
He grew up on the west Mountain and attended St. Thomas More high school. His younger sibling, Genevieve, said that in addition to his good deeds he was as funny as they came.
Adam was hilarious, he made people laugh," she said, adding that he gave everyone a cryptic nickname. Hers was Cheech," though she had no idea why.
In his teens, he loved sharks and knew every line from The Godfather." All of which explains a tweet he wrote at 17, about the upcoming TV schedule: Mob Week and Shark Week. I am in heaven."
At 20, a message he posted captured his never-quit attitude: Kill them with Kindness, Confidence, and Will."
When he graduated from McMaster in 2017 in political science and sustainability, he received the award for excellence in student leadership, and university president Patrick Deane said those who know Adam say he's very difficult to say no to."
Adam hobnobbed with the big wheels and left an impression on those people," said his father, Romolo, whose voice broke talking about his son on the phone.
But Chiaravalle was not able to attend convocation and accept his award in person. He was in hospital. It broke his heart to miss out.
He faced health challenges in recent years but never spoke about it.
Antoinette says they want to respect his wishes to not focus on what he endured, or what in the end took his life.
He always felt there were more important issues to discuss and he didn't want that to be the topic of conversation," she said, adding that staff at Juravinski Hospital who treated him spoke of how positive he always had been.
He was a special young man," said Chad Harvey, a McMaster science professor who knew him as a student, research assistant, and friend.
He was a visionary at a young age, and the word no' was not in his lexicon. He motivated and touched people. He was one of those guys."
At a small funeral service last week, choir singers performed Ave Maria," and You Raise Me Up." Genevieve picked the final song, one of his favourites: John Mayer's Waiting on the World to Change."
While Chiaravalle made his mark in university, he showed signs of perceiving the world differently long before he walked through McMaster's stone arches.
As a young boy, he felt drawn to a towering white oak near his home, that stood along Stone Church Road West next to a school bus stop.
He published an essay last year about the tree that he called Big Oak, describing it as a beacon lifting spirits, and teaching lessons, if you paid attention.
He wrote that all the kids loved the wise 150-year-old giant. But young Adam no doubt felt a unique connection, as he did with other miracles of the earth that grew stronger the rest of his bodily life.
The tree still stands.
Some days at school were really rough for us, so much so that we would collapse under Big Oak and cry," he wrote. Other days were so marvellous that we would be singing, laughing, and dancing under Big Oak for what seemed like an eternity."
Jon Wells is a Hamilton-based reporter and feature writer for The Spectator. Reach him via email: jwells@thespec.com