“He Was A Hero, Without A Doubt.”

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Community Remembers Fallen Marine Taylor Wild

While Lance Cpl. William “Taylor” Wild IV, a 2010 graduate of Severna Park High School, was deployed in Afghanistan, the care packages his family sent him always included long lists of trivia questions on his favorite subject: Harry Potter. Wild’s friends would scour the internet searching for the most difficult questions they could find, then his mother, Betz, would compile them all into a test and mail it to him on the other side of the world. The 21-year-old was an expert on the J.K. Rowling series, and it showed every time the tests made the return trip home to be graded.

“He’d get every question right,” said Wild’s close friend Clarke Lindsay. “He was obsessed with Harry Potter, it was unreal. Whenever we’d be driving around, he’d randomly ask me a Harry Potter trivia question, and be like, ‘Come on seriously, you should know this.’”

Suffice to say Taylor Wild - with his tattooed arms and muscular build - did not look like the typical diehard fan of the fantasy series, but wizardry was far from the only topic on which Wild fell well-outside the norm of his peers: He was selfless in the most superlative sense, unfailingly positive and staunchly devoted to his family, especially his younger brother and sister; and he was excited, at 18 years old, to head to boot camp while his peers went off to college.

“We’d wonder, ‘Why doesn’t he go to school like everybody else?’” recalled Severna Park assistant baseball coach Bob Felts. “But that’s who he was – he’s a guy that broke the mold. He was a guy who wasn’t afraid to fight for the country. He was a hero, without a doubt.”

Wild grew up in the Whitehurst community, and like most kids in Severna Park, he played Green Hornets baseball, enjoyed fishing on the Magothy and Severn rivers, and absolutely loved the Baltimore Orioles and the Ravens.

He also developed an early love for the armed forces. A Marine Corps flag prominently hung alongside an American flag in his childhood bedroom. His father, a veteran of the Anne Arundel County Police Department, is the Command Chief of the Air Force Reserve Unit in Dover, Delaware. One of his grandfathers was a Marine; the other served in the Navy.

“The Wilds are a strong, loving family who really believe in family, faith and country, and you saw that every day with Taylor,” said Delegate Cathy Vitale, who has been friends with the family since she and Betz attended high school together.

Taylor’s profound bond with his family was constantly on exhibition – in the way he would lovingly volley joking barbs back and forth with his mother when his friends were over, and in the countless ways he took after his father, from his desire to become a police officer once he left the Marines, to the trademark upright posture with which he walked.

He adored his little sister, Libby, 9, with whom he would incessantly exchange the silly, toothy grin she had made up years ago. He played catch for hours in their backyard with Griffin, 15, now a sophomore at Severna Park and a member of the varsity baseball team, and his face would light up whenever “Griff” became the topic of conversation.

“Family was the biggest thing with him, more than anyone I’ve ever seen,” said Casey Pohlmeyer, a family friend. “I’ve never seen anyone closer with their siblings, even though they had such a big age difference. When he’d come home from the Marines, he’d always put them first.”

Griffin’s success in baseball was a particular point of pride for Taylor, who was a relief pitcher when he played for the Falcons, and he would brag how his brother, six years younger, was already better than he was. But Taylor’s lack of on-field contributions never stopped him from making an impact on his teammates, who together won the state championship in 2009.

“We needed him on the team – no matter the situation, good or bad, he would always make it better,” said Chris Bonomi, who first played with Wild in elementary school on his Green Hornets team, then again for the Falcons. “He’d pick us up when we were down, and he’d always be smiling, always in good spirits. He led by example.”

Felts echoed the same sentiment, noting that Wild was always the first off the bench to help collect balls or perform any other unglamorous tasks the coaches needed. The team came first, every single time, and his peers took notice.

“He was born to lead. He was a guy that everybody looked to, even though he wasn’t even a team captain. He would do whatever the heck you asked him to do and there was never a problem,” Felts recalled. “People like Taylor Wild are why we coach.”

His selflessness extended far beyond the baseball diamond; it infused everything Taylor did. Pohlmeyer called him “one of those people who would always put everyone else’s needs in front of his own.” Felts described him as the type of person you would call if your car broke down in the middle of nowhere at 1:00am. Vitale said he was “the least likely to have concern for himself and the most likely to have concern for everyone else.”

Several times, when Wild was home from deployment, Lindsay needed help moving elevators at his father’s company. He hesitated to call, because he knew Wild would – and did – drop everything he was doing to come help right away.

“He would never say no,” Lindsay explained. “He was a kid who would do anything for you - help you in any way, shape or form - and be there when you needed him to be there. He was the best friend you could ever ask for.”

The depth of his selflessness was exemplified by his commitment both to and within the Marine Corps. Last year, when another unit needed more soldiers for a tour in Kuwait, Wild volunteered even though it meant he would be spending his third-straight Christmas a world away from his Whitehurst home. He explained to his friends and family that it was better for him to go than someone with a wife and children at home.

“Taylor didn’t want anyone to have to do something he could do himself. He would never want a father to go over there. Taylor’s thing was, ‘I’m 20 years old, why can’t I just go do it?’” Lindsay explained, adding that it was the same reason why Wild joined the Marines in the first place. “He loved his country and his family and his friends. His motivation was, ‘If I can do this and protect my family and protect my little sister and brother, then let’s do it.’”

Wild’s heroism in the sacrifices he made for his family and country will undoubtedly be his legacy; but so too will his unshakably positive spirit. According to friends, family and coaches alike, Wild never complained – ever – and always wore a beaming grin on his face. At a candlelight vigil held for Wild on March 23, Betz made one request to the friends and neighbors in attendance – keep smiling.

“Everybody has commented on Taylor’s smile this past week. He was just always smiling,” said Vitale. “I think we honor Taylor by honoring his mother’s request.”

Wild’s optimism, like his other passions, was a switch he could never turn off. If Taylor felt strongly about something, his commitment was unbreakable and its mark on him was indelible – often literally. His tattoos seemed to multiply each time he came back from deployment, with each one reflecting a different passion: His Marine battalion and regiment, the Orioles and, of course, Harry Potter.

One of the most recent additions to his collection of ink, the Harry Potter tattoo was of an Albus Dumbledore quote with which Wild had become infatuated, telling friends he found it to be both profound and representative of his own ethos. Written across his right arm in thick black ink, read the words: “Death is but the next great adventure.

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