Michael Wayne Taylor was born in Dallas, TX, the son of Wayne and Maxine Taylor. Mike grew up in Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Albuquerque, and Nashville, but spent his first three years in Lima, Peru, where his father was an airline pilot. After his father passed away, his mother married W.E. “Bill” Grindstaff, and the family remained active in the Red River commercial and summer community. Mike always planned on a military career and, to prepare him for West Point, he attended Columbia Military Academy in TN.

At West Point Mike was a leader and company commander First Class year. He excelled at sports and was always helping classmates struggling with Spanish. Among his companymates Mike will always be remembered as the company historian, and whenever an article had to be written or an event recorded Mike could always be counted on. A leader develops the cohesive spirit that bonds his team into a unit, and Mike was in many ways our glue and his stories were his tools for making the shared experience part of all of us. And, as with so much in Mike’s life, it was the journey and not the destination, not so much where the story ended but how we got there as a team.

Mike was commissioned in Field Artillery, and the next day at the Cadet Chapel he married Janie Timberlake, who became the love of his life and constant companion for the rest of his journey.   

Following graduation leave Mike completed Airborne at Fort Benning and FA OBC at Fort Sill. His initial assignments were in Germany as Platoon Leader and Battery Commander in 2/27th Field Artillery, then as Aide to the CG 3rd AD. Mike and Janie took three-day passes along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers and to Paris, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Berlin, and Switzerland, plus skiing in Germany and Austria. Leaves included Rome and a space-A flight to Greece and Crete, which they traveled by motorcycle. Their first child Rob was born in Germany.

Mike continued his military education at Fort Sill for the FA Advanced Course and, in preparation for an assignment to West Point, Mike earned an MA in English from Duke University, where their second child, Natalie, was born. While Mike was on the English Department faculty from 1976 to 1980, Mike and Janie renewed old friendships and made lasting new ones. During this time he also earned an MBA from Long Island University. In 1980 Mike resigned his commission but continued his military career in the reserves, retiring as a lieutenant colonel in 1994.

After a few sales positions with well-known corporations, Mike found his true calling—matching experienced, highly compensated medical professionals and physician executives with top-level health care organizations—when he was recruited by Cejka Executive Search in St. Louis, MO. Mike eventually became President of Grant Cooper. During his 28 years in St. Louis, Mike gave back to the community, serving on the Boards of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Missouri Baptist Hospital and serving as an adult Sunday School teacher.

Mike and Janie spent as much time as possible in Red River, eventually building a beautiful home in Mike’s beloved mountains and hiking trails to secret lakes discovered exploring with his father. Mike was active in the Red River community, writing a column for the local newspaper and chairing the “Mike Taylor Symposium,” a fireside coffee/prayer/discussion group Mike organized to debate the world’s problems and explore great theological issues. No one was really expecting answers, and Mike helped his compatriots to appreciate that life is all about the journey, the exploring, and the learning.

In 2008 Mike was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was given only a few months to live by his doctors, but not by God and certainly not by Mike. For the next five years Mike simply refused to quit—one of the first things Mike and Janie did after receiving the diagnosis was a hiking trip in the Pyrenees. Mike’s strength and forbearance were awe-inspiring, but they paled in comparison to his sense of humor and above all his deep faith. By the June 2012 Ireland mini-reunion most of our class was aware of Mike’s struggle with cancer, so it was fitting that Mike gave the invocation at the final class dinner. He concluded with a passage from Tennyson’s “Ulysses” that epitomizes his drive, dedication to life and striving for the joy of trying, his fortitude, and his faith and trust in God:

…Come, my friends, ’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
…To sail beyond the sunset… until I die.
…Tho’ much is taken, much abides; and tho’
we are not now that strength which in old days,
Mov’d earth and heaven, that which we are, we are:
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will,
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

One of Mike’s favorite expressions, usually said after a particularly challenging climb to a beautiful lake framed by his beloved mountains and aspens and topped by dazzling sky and clouds, was, “It doesn’t get any better than this”—this was how he lived his life and how he left it on Sep 5, 2013, at home in San Antonio, TX, where Mike and Janie had moved to be closer to Natalie and their grandchildren. Mike died in the midst of his loving family and devoted Janie, and in the hands of his Lord. For Mike the journey was just as important as the destination, and his passing is just one more road he wanted to travel. And all who know him are certain, when he arrived at his final destination; he simply said, “It doesn’t get any better than this.”

— Tom Smith ’69, classmates, and friends