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Media Matters
BACK TO THE BEGINNING
Malachi has talked about becoming a dentist since he was 13. He heard somewhere that dentists donate more free services than any other health-care provider, and he wants to be part of that.
He remembers how old he was because it was around the time his dad, Brandon Zeitner, died. He misses his dad. They became quite good friends in the three years they lived together.
But that’s skipping ahead.
Born in Southern California, he only recalls bits and pieces from the time he lived with his mom — moving around almost constantly from one friend’s house to another. They were homeless, but that didn’t mean much to him. After all, he’d never known what it was like to have a bedroom, or a home, for that matter.
“I’d hear we’re going to someone else’s house, and I’d say, ‘Oh, good. They have the best couch.’ You don’t know any di erent.” When his mom got into problems with drugs, they moved yet again to be near family. Shortly after, she violated probation and was arrested for child abuse. It may have been child endangerment. Malachi doesn’t know the specifics.
“I was pretty young, but I believe she had been drinking, and me and my sister were in the car. We were in the trunk, and she got pulled over,” he says.
She went to prison, and he went to live with his dad in Chicago.
LIFE WITH DAD
“We were very close. He was single at the time so it was just me and him. One reason we were so close, not in a negative way, is he treated me less like a son and more like a roommate.”
The two became buddies. Malachi would come home from school, and they’d watch a scary movie together with the son comforting his dad, all 6'4" and 230 pounds of him, through the nail-biting scenes.
They also played lots of golf together, not surprising considering his dad was a professional golfer. Brandon took pride in being the cool dad and not embarrassing his son. What Malachi didn’t know was that his dad was drinking himself to death.
After his dad died, his mom showed up.
“She tried to get custody of me, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, my mom wants to be back in my life.’ ”
He came to discover that what she really wanted were the Social Security checks Malachi was receiving. When the court ordered him to live with his paternal grandparents, she kicked him out of the house. They haven’t talked or seen each other since.
“So that tells you a little bit about who she is,” Malachi says.
And who was he at that point? Perhaps a better question is, how was he?
He’s not really sure how he coped, but he did.
“Everybody was always surprised that I was just fine.”
ON TO MIAMI
Actually, he was more than “just fine.” After he went to live with his grandparents in Sioux City, Iowa, he says, he felt blessed with what he calls an incredible childhood. His grandparents didn’t have an abundance, but they provided for him and loved him “no matter what.”
His aunt and uncle also o ered support, inviting him stay with them in Columbus during the summers. By the time he reached high school, his Aunt Beth came up with a plan to pay for college. His Uncle Brad, head professional at Brookside Golf & Country Club, helped facilitate it.
If Malachi would caddie at Brookside for two summers, he could apply for a Chick Evans Scholarship. The other reason Malachi caddied was so he could save every dime in case he had to pay for college himself. Fortunately, he didn’t. In an anecdote Malachi shared with Golfweek, he said that after interviewing with the scholarship committee, which was in tears by the end of his story, he was stopped on the way out by a member who told him, “Son, I’ve been coming to these interviews for 25 years, and that’s the best interview I’ve ever seen.”
In addition to the Evans Scholarship, he also received financial support from Miamians he didn’t even know, something he finds incredulous.
“I met a lot of people who were willing to stick their necks out for me because they’d heard about what I went through and wanted to lend a helping hand.”
With his funding in place, Malachi enrolled at Miami to major in zoology.
From the time he and his grandparents arrived in Oxford and moved him into the first Evans Scholar house on Church Street, he fit right in. He made great friends, and no one looked at him di erently because of his background.
“The biggest lesson I learned at Miami was it doesn’t matter where you start,” he says. “It doesn’t matter if you had all the advantages in the world. It doesn’t matter who your dad is or what they did. If there’s something that you really want to do, you can do it.”
NO REGRETS
Malachi’s isn’t a happily-ever-after story because, for one thing, it’s not finished yet. He’s in the early chapters. Plus, life is messy and unexpected, full of challenges, both di cult and wonderful.
COVID-19, as it did to so many, quashed the big wedding plans he and his wife, Olivia, were anticipating last May. As it turned out, they thoroughly enjoyed their
PHOTOS COURTESY OF MALACHI ZEITNER
intimate family gathering. (They met in dental school while cleaning each other’s teeth for a class assignment.)
His oral surgery internship next year will be in Sioux City, a five-hour drive away from Olivia, who will remain in Iowa City to finish her pediatric residency. That will be hard on the young couple. He is hoping to match into an oral surgery residency this January.
“I know well that there are plenty of things in life that can disappoint you,” he says. “You just can’t let it discourage you.”
Instead, he draws on his experiences to make him more empathetic. With his background, he feels like he has the ability to relate to almost anyone.
He gives a poignant example.
“I saw two patients today. One had cancer in their throat, another one had cancer in their tongue. They’d had surgery, and then I had to tell them, ‘Oh, you have to have all your teeth extracted.’
“With where I’ve been, I sort of know what it’s like to struggle. All these patients, I can relate to. Not necessarily in terms of cancer, but in terms of having things not go your way and losing people and grief.”
Perhaps surprisingly, he wouldn’t rewrite his childhood.
“I don’t look back and regret anything or wish anything was di erent,” Malachi says. “Of course, I would love to have my dad, but, you know, this is the way it is. There were so many kids who had it so much worse than me. I had everything that I needed.”
Donna Boen ’83 MTSC ’96 is editor of Miamian
SCHOLARSHIP GIVING
As state funding continues to recede, and tuition and other college expenses rise, it is imperative that Miami increase its ability to o er significant and enduring scholarship support. Scholarships are crucial not only for attracting bright, talented, and motivated students, but also for empowering them all the way to graduation day. It is Miami’s top priority because, simply put, it transforms lives. To learn more about scholarship giving opportunities, please visit GivetoMiamiOH.org/Scholarships.
Pictured far left to right: Malachi as a toddler; with his wife, Olivia; and taking a quick break at work at University of Iowa Hospitals.
75YEARS OF
SERVICE
NROTC observes its diamond anniversary on Miami’s Oxford campus
STORY BY
JAMES MAYNARD ’52
OPENING IMAGE COURTESY OF
MIAMI UNIVERSITY NROTC
Editor’s note: Capt. James Maynard ’52 received his commission as ensign USN through Miami’s NROTC program and served on a heavy cruiser during the Korean War and later at the Naval Academy as instructor of navigation. He is a co-founder of the Miami NROTC alumni organization and has served on its reunion committees, including the 75th anniversary, which, because of COVID-19, was postponed last fall and will be celebrated this Veterans Day weekend, Nov. 11-14, 2021. Jim, honored with the 2005 Admiral S.W. Souers Award for being a distinguished alumnus of the NROTC, has authored a historical novel of World War II set at Miami University as well as several editions of the History of Miami’s NROTC. The following highlights come from his extensive research. OXFORD BECOMES A NAVY TOWN
Since the founding of the Naval Reserve O cers Training Corps on Miami’s campus in November 1945, more than 2,700 o cers from Miami have been commissioned in the Navy and Marine Corps. Several achieved flag rank; many have become leaders in business and industry; others have been successful in education and politics.
Some commissioned alumni have had the high honor of command at sea during peace and war. And some have given their lives in service.
Dec. 7, 1941
Miami University’s long association with the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps begins on a cold winter day in Oxford on Sunday, Dec. 7, 1941, when radio broadcasts break the news that the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor in a surprise attack as the bugle sounded quarters at 0800 and the band played the United States’ national anthem.
During the war, thousands of enlisted and o cers are trained at Miami in radio and o cer V-5 and V-12 programs. While the male civilian student population dwindles due to the draft, female Miami students take first-aid training, make Red Cross bandages, encourage war bond sales, and work with the newly established USO on campus. The Miami Student newspaper, sta ed by female students for the first time, is mailed to all the Miami boys in the service, an enormous task.
And Oxford becomes a Navy town … Navy lingo, scuttlebutt, and other nautical terms become a familiar part of Oxford’s language; shore patrol police the streets on liberty nights; Navy buses shuttle sailors to swimming lessons at the Oxford pool; Navy shows are produced at Benton Hall. During the Fourth of July celebration, 2,000 Navy sailors parade down High Street. One weekend, hundreds of Navy sailors from Great Lakes Training Center, led by Lt. W.C. “Weeb” Ewbank ’28, former coach of McGu ey High School, descend on the town. After the war, he becomes the only professional head coach to win championships in the NFL and the AFL and a Super Bowl.
During World War II, Miami trains 10,000 Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard men and women. Hundreds of Miamians are wounded, and 180 lose their lives, the first being Navy Ensign William Lawrence, an architecture student and scout observation pilot assigned to the USS Arizona at Pearl Harbor.
Aug. 14, 1945
The day the Japanese emperor surrenders his nation, Miami receives a letter from the Navy stating that the university will have a unit of the NROTC. Students selected through rigorous tests, interviews, and physical examinations will receive four-year scholarships, including books, tuition, and a monthly stipend, in return for two years of active duty as regular o cers in the Navy.
The plan is named after Adm. James Holloway of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, who recognizes that the Naval Academy can no longer supply all the Navy o cers required. He persuades Congress to pass legislation to expand the NROTC program, first established in 1926 at six colleges, to 52 colleges and universities.
The mission today remains the same: “To develop future o cers mentally, morally, and physically and to imbue them with the highest ideals of duty and loyalty, and with the core values of honor, courage, and commitment in order to commission college graduates as naval o cers.”
Nov. 1, 1945
Miami is assigned an initial sta of 40 WWII veteran o cers and enlisted men to serve as instructors for naval science subjects. Led by Capt. Granville Moore, professor of naval science and tactics, they begin training 350 o cer candidates from the former V-5 and V-12 programs including 175 newly assigned NROTC selectees. Navy o ces are in the new men’s dormitory, Symmes Hall.
December 1949
The new armory on Spring Street opens and is named in honor of Adm. Stephen Rowan, Miami Class of 1826, longest-serving admiral in the U.S. Navy, serving on active duty 63 years. He commanded the USS New Ironsides during the Civil War and led the
