A TRIBUTE TO ZACHARY (ZAC) ALEXANDER DAY
1983-1986 –
THE EARLY YEARS: Zac Day was born November 10, 1983 in San Antonio, Texas to Regina (Carroll) Day, D.D.S. and Calvin Lee Day, Jr., M.D. Zac’s older sister Berica was 3 ½ years old at the time and Berica began to play what came to pass as
her lifetime role of being Zac’s second mommy. From the very moment Zac was born, he was agreeable, happy, sweet, and playfully mischievous. Zac’s most remarkable characteristic during his toddler years was his ability to climb. When
Zac was discovered after a miraculous climb, he would give you a great big belly laugh, and then run away only to climb something else, hopefully with you chasing after him. The older neighbor kids would put Zac into an empty trash can, put the lid over
him, and then sing the “Pop Goes the Weasel” song; Zac would stand up, pop off the trash can lid, and giggle. On one occasion during an extravagant home-cooked meal for guests, Zac managed to put his teeth marks into a bar of butter and then carefully
replaced the lid, thereby giving the dinner guests a hilarious surprise. When Zac was two years old, his brother Todd was born, and after a while, Todd became Zac’s childhood wrestling partner. They would wrestle for hours, laughing and giggling
the entire time.
1986-1989 – THE HUNTING YEARS: When Zac was three years old, he and his family moved to 716 College Blvd
in Alamo Heights, an address that Zac would call home for the next 25 years. 1986 through 1989 were the hunting years for Zac. From September 1st through the end of the Spring turkey season, Zac would go almost every weekend to hunting leases with
his dad, and typically Zac’s granddad would join them. When brother Todd turned two, he went on these hunting trips as well. On one memorable hunting trip, Zac and Todd began to wrestle, and ended up in a mud hole. All you could see
when they finished were the whites of their eyes and the white teeth in their laughing mouths. Zac’s favorite toy was a BB gun that did not have BB’s. For hours upon hours, Zac would cock and repeatedly fire his BB gun; the BB gun was well
oiled to make it easier for Zac to cock the gun. One day, mysterious oil spots suddenly appeared on an expensive sofa in the Day household. Progressively more spots appeared until it was deduced that the sofa, which had a bird print pattern, contained
oil spots that were located only on the heads of the birds. Zac was asked if he shot the couch with his BB gun. “No” he said. “birds….. I shot the birds”.
1989-1998 -- THE BOYHOOD YEARS: The years from 1989-1998 were dominated by bicycles and sports. After living in the Alamo Heights area for three years, Zac had many friends. Because Zac’s house had
a pool, and because Zac had so many friends, his house during those years was filled with children and laughter. On any given weekend in Alamo Heights, if you sat in one spot long enough you would eventually see Zac amongst a swarm of about 30 bicycles
as they came buzzing by, accompanied by shouts of exhilaration and laughter. Zac was a fearless and courageous bicycle rider, and would always insist on going first after he and his friends built progressively more dangerous bicycle jump ramps. Zac
was a gifted athlete and absolutely loved sports. He would spend hours shooting baskets without stopping and would only watch sports shows on TV. He played on numerous childhood teams including the Bulls basketball team coached by Paul Buntyn, the Raiders
football team coached by Buzz Merritt, the Yankees CYO baseball team coached by Ron McLoud, and the Reds and Sunset Ridge Little League baseball teams coached by his dad. During his last year in Little League, Zac batted over 700 with an 804 on base
average. Zac made many friends through these youth teams, and most after-game parties were held at Zac’s house. Many of his team members would stay over, and children’s laughter would be heard well into the night.
1998-2002 -- HIGH SCHOOL YEARS AT ALAMO HEIGHTS: During Zac’s high school years, Zac continued to excel at sports and played Varsity Football
and Varsity Baseball for Alamo Heights. In particular, Zac excelled in football, and in his senior year Zac was a Unanimous Selection to the All-District Team as a Receiver, and in addition, was named to the All City Second Team. He had about 800 yards
receiving with Bret Broussard at quarterback and Tyler Warren as the other primary receiver. Their football games were about as exciting as any one could watch. Coach Donald Byrd ran that team as a conductor might run a symphony. It was music
in motion. “I’ve got your back” Zac would say to his friends, and he proved that he meant it on numerous occasions by protecting his friends against foes who were often much taller than his 5’ 9” frame. His friends and family
knew him to be fearless, courageous, and loyal, lifelong traits that were part of his character to the end. At the beginning of Zac’s junior year, Zac began a four-year relationship with Callie Mortimer. Although Zac had always been a happy
easygoing child, his happiness reached a peak during his junior and senior year of high school while he was dating Callie. Without question, Zac’s relationship with Callie was best of the best about Zac’s life. They were a radiant and
beautiful couple.
2002-2008 – THE COLLEGE YEARS: After high school, Zac attended Texas A&M University in College
Station whereupon he received a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology in August 2008. Many, many weekends while Zac was away at College Station, he and his dad met halfway near Bastrop Texas and played golf together at the Wolfdancer Golf Club.
2008-2011 -- THE GOLF YEARS: From August 2008 through June 2011 Zac worked for his dad playing in Charity Golf Tournaments. From 2009 through
June 2011, Zac played in at least 124 Charity Golf Tournaments. Zac was happy to be contributing to charity in this way; he felt good about himself and he felt good about what he was doing. He was using his athletic talents to contribute to society.
In addition to the charity tournaments, Zac played in competitive golf tournaments as well, and carried a 2 handicap. At one National Tournament at PGA West in La Quinta, California, Zac made a double eagle on a par five hole. For those of
you who do not play golf, the odds of getting a hole in one for the average golfer is approximately one in 12,000, whereas the odds of getting a double eagle is approximately one in a million. It was during these golf years from 2008 to 2011 that Zac and his
dad were together almost daily. Zac and his dad played golf with each other most weekends on Saturday afternoons and again on Sunday mornings.
2011-2013 -- THE MEDIA ABUSE YEARS: On June 30, 2013 Zac was buried in the Day family area of the Gillett Cemetery, four days after his passing on 06/26/2013. Only parents who have lost their children would understand
that the emotional pain is beyond comparison. As a further tribute to Zacthere are some circumstances of his passing that have thus far been “the white elephant in the room”. Zac would want all of you to know, in hopes that it
would bring about change that may spare others from unnecessary premature death. Zac’s premature passing, was a largely result of a combination of three primary factors, namely 1) his underlying mental condition of schizophrenia, 2) accusations
against his father (a dad that Zac idolized) and 3) media abuse. Each are addressed here:
Schizpophrenia – This is a difficult condition to comprehend. Perhaps if it might be best understood
by watching the movie “A Beautiful Mind” starring Russel Crowe. The bottom line is that many people with schizophrenia can function normally but need medication and strong support from friends and family. Zac was well compensated on
meds but began to do poorly with all of the recent bad press about his dad. Zac’s dad was Zac’s go to guy when he began to decompensate, but his dad was in Bexar County jail and incoming calls are not allowed, thus he had no access to his
dad when he decompensated this last time.
Accusations – Zac's dad was accused of sexual assault. Zac’s dad maintained then, and still does, that he is innocent,
and he passed a polygraph, in this she-said-he said case with no witnesses and no DNA evidence. Nevertheless, the widely publicized false accusation devastated Zac.
Media Abuse
-- Zac’s dad’s trial began in early June 2013. A media frenzy ensued, and the media began to abuse Zac and his family. The media abuse took several forms as follows:
1. The media called
his dad a rapist when in fact Zac’s dad was never accused of rape. Can you just imagine what this type of fraudulent reporting did to Zac in his mental condition? It killed him, that’s what it did.
2. The media had a copy of Zac’s dad’s polygraph showing that he was innocent of Accuser’s allegations, but despite publishing daily pro-prosecution articles on the trial, the media never mentioned the polygraph that exonerated
Zac’s dad. In fairness to Zac, the media should have had daily recitals referencing his dad’s polygraph side by side with the daily pro-prosecution propaganda. The absence of fairness in media reporting killed Zac.
3. For almost a month, there were daily recitals in the media that there were “13 others”. Yet, when these “others” finally showed up in court, it turned out that there were only “2 others” with similar
complaints and not 13. Moreover, the accusations of these two copycats were quickly DISPROVEN in court as detailed above. Yet even though the “others” were non-existent, the media had already done the damage to Zac and to his family via the month
long daily media recitals of the non-existent “13 others”. Had the media been fair, they would have published daily side-by-side recitals about my polygraph as well. Without a doubt, the repeated daily one sided media bombardment against
a dad that Zac idolized made Zachary’s life sheer torture and destabilized him to the point that he took his own life to end the torture that the media abuse had on his brain. On June 26, 2013, the day of his dad’s sentencing, Zac ended his
life by stepping in front of an oncoming truck on interstate 10 near the RIM.
You in the media have aided and abetted Zac’s death. You were reluctant to print and to televise certain truths
because the District Attorney (DA) would frown upon your actions, cut you off from your flow of information, and ruin your livelihood. You were afraid to bite the hand that feeds you. It is perfectly understandable that you behaved this way because
those of you in the media also have families to support. You cannot afford to lose your job for digging to look beneath the surface, because you might find truths that you would be tempted to print or televise. It is much easier to take at face
value everything that spouts forth from the DA’s office. Those of you in the media, please continue to protect yourself, your jobs, and your family at all costs, because Zac himself had the experience of losing all of those things, and Zac would not
want what happened to him, to also happen to you. Zac had a good heart and he would understand your lack of curiosity to dig into Accuser’s background and your lack of initiative to find the truth about her.
But for those of you not in the media, let not Zac Day die in vain. Come forth and be truthful those of you who possess the information about the Accuser that will help Zac Day finish what he so desperately wanted at the time of his
death. Be silent no more, those of you who know the truth about Accuser. To your own heart be true and do the right thing; come forward with information about Accuser. And may God bless you and your family in so doing.