ATLANTA — This month one year ago, the news spread about a CDC epidemiologist who had inexplicably gone missing. Conspiracy theories flew. Questions went unanswered ... until crews found the body of Timothy Cunningham two months later in the Chattahoochee River.
But that has not been close to the end of Cunningham's story ... a story that means a great deal to his city.
“We all live with purpose in our lives," says Rev. Jasmine Smothers, a friend of Cunningham and the lead pastor at Atlanta First United Methodist Church. "But rarely at that young age do we make that kind of impact.”
Cunningham's impact on Atlanta was immense. He worked for the CDC, but he volunteered with countless organizations and was a member of the LEAD Atlanta class of 2014.
Joe Carlos knew Cunningham through Morehouse College, first as a classmate and then as a friend. He says Cunningham donated constantly and even taught public health classes at Morehouse and Spelman for free.
“The clickbait, the conspiracies … it seemed so beneath him," Carlos says, "beneath this brilliant, dignified man.”
After Cunningham's body was found and his life was memorialized, Carlos says, “There was sadness. There was anger. There was confusion. And then it was like, ‘OK, how do we honor him? How do we celebrate him?’”
Cunningham's family requested donations to Morehouse. People gave. They began work on a scholarship at his high school in Maryland. People gave. The CDC published a collection of papers about health disparities - a passionate subject of Cunningham's - and dedicated it to him.
It didn't stop there.
“We were sitting at Tim’s kitchen table," Smothers recalls, "beginning to plan his memorial services, and his parents said to me, ‘We’d like to establish an endowment in Tim’s name at Atlanta First.’”
The endowment is for homeless ministry with an emphasis on mental health.
“As soon as it was announced, donations started rolling in," Smothers says. "And I was stunned by the generosity of the community that Tim created for himself and for Atlanta. It means everything to me, because it allows me to know that Tim’s legacy will continue … and that it will have an impact beyond his very short life.”
A year ago, the world learned about a missing man whose passion for his city went largely untold. A year later, that passion continues.
“I pray that the city of Atlanta will remember him," says Smothers, "and not just the stories they’ve seen in the news. I hope they understand that they were beneficiaries of the life of Timothy J. Cunningham.”
For more on how to give to Atlanta First UMC, click here. And for more on honoring Cunningham through his alma mater at Morehouse, click here.
