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Music was his son's gift, now it is theirs

A father has donated the proceeds of his son's life insurance policy for a professional recording studio at Calvary Christian High School.

By TERRI BRYCE REEVES
Published January 1, 2006

CLEARWATER - Calvary Christian High School will boast a professional-quality recording studio thanks to a father who wants to honor the memory of his son.

Steven MacAllister is donating the proceeds of his son's life insurance policy to equip the studio, which is part of the new, $23.5-million Calvary Baptist Church campus at Drew Street and McMullen-Booth Road.

The church and the high school will share the digital recording studio, and in the near future it will be available to outside youth groups.

The studio will be named after Steven MacAllister's only son David, a 17-year-old guitarist who loved music but died before he could pursue his dream of becoming a professional musician.

"This is David's gift," he said. "It's his lasting legacy. It's exactly what he would love."

MacAllister said he wanted to help create the studio because his son was frustrated by the expense of making a professional-grade recording.

"It was hard for kids without money to find a place to record," said MacAllister, 54, a retired airline pilot who now remodels homes.

David was a member of the grunge-rock band Ember Days, made up of five teens who attended Pinellas Park and Clearwater high schools. David had completed his junior year at Pinellas Park and was headed to Clearwater High for his senior year when he died mysteriously July 19, 2003, after mowing the lawn.

Neither the medical examiner nor researchers at the Mayo Clinic could figure out why he collapsed as he sipped a glass of water while watching television, his father said. Doctors speculated he had a heart problem. MacAllister said he is sure it wasn't substance abuse.

"They weren't into drugs or alcohol. They were into music," said MacAllister, who lives in West Tampa.

David played hockey, but found his true calling, his father said, when one afternoon father taught son how to play Paint It Black by the Rolling Stones. David then took guitar lessons at Pinellas Park High and mastered the electric guitar. He was also an artist, a poet and a songwriter.

His mother, Ann Cueva of Clearwater, remembers David as tall, dark-haired and handsome.

"He was 6-foot-2, gorgeous, thin, and when he had shoulder-length hair, people were always saying he looked like Jesus," she said. "He was very tenderhearted and had a great sense of humor."

She said as a child, David often practiced his signature, saying he one day would be famous. She has a collection of about 25 of his "famous signatures."

The room at Calvary Christian, to be named the David Caldwell MacAllister recording studio, will be a lasting recognition, she said.

After David's birth, Steven MacAllister's parents, Jack and Marilyn MacAllister, took out a $100,000 life insurance policy on their grandson. For MacAllister, there was no question about how the money should be used.

"When you have a boy taken that had so much promise, it just makes sense," he said.

One of those using the studio will be Kelly MacAllister, 16, who attends Calvary Christian and sings in the school's Praise Band. Kelly is one of David's four sisters; he also has two stepsisters.

"I think it's really cool to have a place to honor him, especially since he loved music so much. He'd be blown away," she said.

The studio will be dedicated Jan. 20. That would have been David's 20th birthday.

It will be equipped with two, 96-channel Yamaha soundboards, computers, microphones and effects processors, said Josh Gilmore, music director at Calvary Christian. The studio has so much equipment - $125,000 worth - one wall will have to be removed.

The school will have classes so teens will be able to mix, edit and produce music and television shows.

"This will be a professional quality studio comparable to those found in Nashville and California," Gilmore said. "I don't know of a school in the country that has this type of studio, let alone a small private one like us."

The school - 200 are enrolled in the ninth through 12th grades - has three students headed to Belmont University in Nashville, one of the nation's premier entertainment and music business schools, Gilmore said.

"We have quite a few students who would like to go into the music industry as a career, and as word gets out that we have this studio, we will probably attract more," he said.

MacAllister said he knows David is proud.

"It's very exciting, the thought of all these kids using David's gift," he said. "I know he's smiling about it."

[Last modified January 1, 2006, 00:28:15]