Individual Details

Death

Former Mount Prospect resident, Matthew Paul McEnerney, tragically died in a car crash on July 4 in Dublin, California. McEnerney grew up in Mount Prospect and took the town’s motto to heart, according to childhood best friend, John McKevitt, who posted on Facebook: “Matt McEnerney often talked about the Mount Prospect motto: ‘Where Friendliness is a Way of Life.’ For some reason that sentiment always clicked with him on some deep level. It wasn’t a joke or some silly thing to mock. He really loved it and he loved where we grew up. He wanted it to be real and, maybe in some strange way, felt like he was expected to embody it on behalf of our town…“Some of my favorite memories were trying to get Matt to laugh. It was hilarious to see Matt lose control as his laugh became too difficult for him to suppress. It built and built and built, until finally this forearmed lumberjack of a kid couldn’t contain his joy anymore. This rolling giggle of silliness and tears just burst out into the world for everyone else to witness. It was impossible to not immediately become a part of that joy, to feel welcomed by it and to want to experience it again.” After graduating from John Hersey High School in 2002, McEnerney attended University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (UWW) in Whitewater, Wisconsin, from fall 2002 to spring 2004 where he played baseball. McEnerney’s former baseball coach from UWW, John Vodenlich, said, “He was a wonderful teammate and extremely hardworking young man. In the two years I was with him, I was impressed with him as a person… we saw unprecedented success in him.” He transferred from UWW to Beloit College in Beloit, Wisconsin, in the fall of 2004 and became a revered baseball player and was the third baseman during the team’s win in the 2005 All-Midwest Conference North Division. McEnerney graduated with a bachelor’s degree in communications in 2006 from Beloit and moved to California to pursue his career. In 2011, he married Rebecca “Becca” Furr and has lived in Dublin, California, for the last eight years. After McEnerney’s death, Becca made a tribute video for him, which detailed how much the two loved each other. In the video, Becca shared how whenever she would leave the house, Matt would wave until the garage door was completely flush to the ground. “Matt was genuine, intelligent, easy-going and fun. He often blasted music and danced around the house making up all of these crazy dance moves and insisted that I watch,” Becca said. McEnerney was an “extremely athletic” person and completed the Chicago Marathon in 2018 in three hours and 51 minutes. Before his death, he was training for the Oakland Triathlon. He was adored by many but especially by Becca and their “dog-daughter,” Dakota. Becca describes the love he had for Dakota; he taught her many tricks, including “playing the piano,” and built Dakota a room under the stairs complete with a secret door. McEnerney even became Becca’s “personal weatherman” after earning a degree in meteorology. “If there’s one thing about him that he would want me to convey to you today…it’s not his accomplishments, or his endearing characteristics, it’s that his faith in God was number one. He studied the bible so much that whenever it was a category on Jeopardy, he’d get every question right,” said Becca. McEnerney is survived by his wife, Becca Furr McEnerney; parents, Bill and Maureen McEnerney; grandmother Joan Donahue; sister Christie, brother-in-law Trevor, nieces and nephew, Brooklyn, Jackson “JD” and Lyla Stocking; and sister Hayley and brother-in-law Scott Heinz. The visitation and funeral service will take place on Wednesday, July 17 at St. Raymond Church at 301 S. I Oka Ave., Mount Prospect. Visitation is from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. with the funeral to follow at 10 a.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Myositis Association (www.Myositis.org) or to McEnerney’s favorite Christian radio station, K-Love.