Joshua Cloud

Joshua Cloud was known as a people person. Cloud and Daniel Seehase, a senior majoring in math and finance in the accelerated master’s program, met after signing up for the Alabama Kayak Club. The two became close friends.

“He was one of those guys that was just a magnet to everyone in the community,” Seehase said. “He was easygoing, easy to talk to, always lending a helping hand, going out of his way to meet people and have a good time.”

During the spring before his graduation in 2017, Cloud made a call to his family.

“He called us one day in the spring and said ‘I think I’m going to go up to Colorado and be a whitewater rafting guide when I graduate,’” his mother, Patti Cloud said. “He researched it, he interviewed with several companies, he chose a company and spent the summer in Colorado.”

Joshua Cloud attended the University from 2013-2017 on the Presidential Scholarship. He graduated in 2017 with a degree in electrical engineering and a minor in math.

Before his death in Colorado in 2017, Joshua Cloud began work as a rafting guide, as whitewater rafting was one of his many passions. Due to legal circumstances, the Cloud family cannot discuss details surrounding his death.

Patti Cloud said her son would accomplish anything he put his mind to.

The scholarship they’re creating

The Cloud family wanted to create something positive from the tragedy that pierced their family. Patti Cloud said this is what pushed the family to open the Joshua Mark Cloud Scholarship in her son’s name.

“We came up with the idea to open a scholarship in his name,” Patti Cloud said. “I’m sure there are other people out there who maybe want to go to Alabama, want to be an electrical engineer, but their families just don’t have that kind of money for out of state [tuition]. So we want to help create that dream for them.”

As a Tennessee native, Joshua Cloud was adamant about leaving his home in Knoxville and attending the University. Even though his family didn’t know why, they supported his decision.

Joshua Cloud’s grandfather or “Pawpaw,” as he was called, loved the University and inspired him to go.

“Pawpaw had just shared the stories with him,” Patti Cloud said. “Since he was about 8 years old, that’s where he wanted to go.”

Kevin Nunnally is the associate vice president for Advancement Services, and his office works to set up UA scholarships. One of Nunnally’s responsibilities is handling the gifts and records management area.

All gifts that come to the University go through Nunnally’s office. In simple terms, the office’s gift accounting group records donations and provides a receipt to the donor.

“In the case of people setting up new funds at the University, they’re creating the actual accounts where those monies are deposited into,” Nunnally said.

Nunnally said there are two types of scholarship funds that can be opened: a current use fund and an endowment fund, the most common fund. A current use fund requires a minimum of $1,000 to start.

“The balance of that can be expended down to zero,” Nunnally said. “So if someone sets up a current use scholarship for say, $2,500, once they award all the scholarships out of that fund and it goes to zero, that kind of fund gets expended at that point.”

At the University, the minimum to start an endowment fund is $25,000, Nunnally said.

Someone from Nunnally’s office is currently helping the Cloud family develop the scholarship, which will be set up as an endowment fund.

Nunnally said there is one big difference between the endowment fund and the current use fund.

“The one main difference is that the corpus or the principal of that fund is not extended,” Nunnally said. “That $25,000 is invested in the University’s endowment pool.”

Every year, that $25,000 will be available in the form of a scholarship. Nunnally said donors usually satisfy the commitments to an endowment fund pledge over five years.

Patti Cloud said her goal is to have the first scholarship ready by 2023.

The relationships he held

Though Seehase is now the vice president of the Alabama Kayak Club, he wasn’t as experienced when he joined the club as a freshman.

It was during his freshman year that Seehase met Joshua Cloud, who was in his sophomore year.

The club recruits students during Get On Board Day, and to make sure that people are ready for kayaking, the club holds open practices.

During the minimum five weeks of open practices in the 2015 fall semester, Seehase and Joshua Cloud got to know each other.

“For the first five weeks of open practices, he was just learning right alongside me,” Seehase said. “We just connected through that and then three years of being in the club together, we got to know each other very well.”

Seehase said members of the club referred to Joshua Cloud as just “Cloud.”

Seehase reached out on behalf of the club to Patti Cloud’s family after Joshua Cloud’s death.

“People just always commented on how willing he was to help you learn what you needed to learn,” Patti Cloud said. “He was always encouraging and helpful and supportive. Those are the qualities that people gave him. When other people recognize those qualities, then you know they’re true.”

A reception of friends was held in Knoxville before Joshua Cloud’s funeral.

Born in Chattanooga, Joshua Cloud and his family moved to Knoxville when he was in the eighth grade. Joshua Cloud is buried in Chattanooga.

Members of the club came together to pay their respects at the funeral. Seehase said there were about 15 club members in Chattanooga for the occasion. It served as a way for the club to come together and share stories about their friend.

Joshua Cloud had previously worked as a raft guide on the Ocoee River near Chattanooga.

When word got out about the funeral, raft guides Joshua Cloud worked with came to join the club members and Cloud family.

“It was not energetic at his funeral, but it was kind of as vibrant as a funeral could be, just with all the personalities coming in,” Seehase said.

To Seehase, Joshua Cloud was someone who never deviated from who he was.

“Whether you knew him as a student, as a drinking buddy, as a paddler, as a raft guide, whether it was his cousins or people who knew him, everybody knew the exact same Josh,” Seehase said.

The Cloud family still struggles with their loss, but keeps Joshua Cloud’s memory alive by talking about him, sharing stories and celebrating his birthday – and now his memory will live on in the scholarship set up in his name.

“There’s not a day that goes by that we don’t think about him,” Patti Cloud said. “We still struggle.”

Patti Cloud said she, her husband and two daughters are coping differently.

“We’re a close family so we talk about it,” Patti Cloud said. “We talk about him, we celebrate his birthday still but we’re making it, we’re surviving.”