Arcadia teen remembered as caring outdoorsman

On the day the Conrad family first met their son, Logan Conrad, in a Russian orphanage as they considered adoption, they stood face to face with a shy, sad, quiet three-year-old boy who carried uncertainty and a reluctance to smile.

That boy grew into an Arcadia community member described as a caring person who constantly sought ways to immerse himself in the outdoors however he could.

Logan, a 16-year-old Arcadia High School student, died Aug. 15 in a car accident. Those closest to him say his pure heart could be seen — and felt — since the day he left Russia to join his parents, Rollie and Dana Conrad, in 2010.

“The first trip we went there was 10 days, we got to see him six of those 10. And the first three days he would not smile,” Rollie said. “At that time we’re thinking, ‘How’s this going to go?’ But he hit American soil, and he hit the ground running and never quit running from the day we got him.”

‘He just lived for the outdoors’

Logan’s biggest passions were hunting and fishing.

Arcadia residents could often see Logan riding his bike to go fishing in the nearby river. He would sit there all day if he could, his mother said, also noting Logan was eager to be up at 4 a.m. if it meant he was headed to hunt.

Despite the world becoming quiet when the COVID pandemic limited public social interactions, Logan often found peace in the woods hunting or setting lures in the river hoping for a bite.

“It didn’t matter if it was 4 in the afternoon or 20 minutes from dark,” Rollie recalled. “I’d say, ‘Why are you going? It’s almost dark.’ He’d say, ‘Well, you never know. I might catch a good one.’ He just lived for the outdoors.”

Logan learned the inner workings of bass fishing from his uncle and enjoyed a trip to Alaska this summer with a close friend. The Conrad garage is filled with fishing lures, rods and bags.

Dana said her son was always prepared to teach or help others, especially when it came to hunting and the outdoors. Logan was a member of the high school football, baseball and wrestling teams in Arcadia and enjoyed working for local business Wegman Concrete Construction this summer.

He looked up to his bosses at Wegman Concrete, who were teaching him the inner workings of the business. Logan once joked that his parents wouldn’t have to save up for a four-year college tuition because he was interested in the idea of a job in the trades. Working in concrete, machinery, welding or another trade were options Logan considered for his future, Dana said, adding he “thrived” in technical education courses.

As an outdoorsman, Logan was passionate. As a person, his mother described him as a “protector” and someone who cared about others.

“He was very hardworking, and he liked everybody. He would meet somebody, and they were instantly his friend,” Dana said of her son. “The word hate was not in his vocabulary.”

Those hoping to keep Logan alive through his memory can do so by being kind to others, his mother said.

“We’ve heard time and time again how considerate he was and how he would walk up to anybody and start talking to them,” she said.

Rollie remembered one day when he was walking with Logan up a steep hill in the dark to a turkey blind. Logan teased his father for taking too long to trek up the hill because he was excited to hunt. Other children in the Conrad family and community flocked to him because he made people feel cared for and was always up for an adventure, his parents said.

“As a father you don’t do everything right. You know that you fail at times, but he was going to be a better dad than I ever thought about being. … I think since this all happened, I think about that poor little kid he was going to have someday,” Rollie said. “He was fit and trim and would likely stay that way for a long time. … I’m thinking, that kid’s gonna say, ‘Dad can we just slow down a bit?' He was go, go, go.”

Arcadia continues to honor Conrad

The Conrads said the community has helped them immensely through being present to support them, memorials, and keeping Logan’s legacy alive.

“Arcadia sometimes gets a bad rap but I can tell you there’s nowhere else you’d want to live when something like this happens,” Dana said.

On the night of Logan’s death, upwards of 300 people mourned together in the Conrad family home, including the football team and almost 100 students.

“This whole thing has been something we never could have imagined. But when all of his buddies came walking up the driveway that night, that was tough,” Rollie said. “As they’re walking up I’m picturing them when they were little playing T-ball or flag football together. … That was tough when they came walking in.”

One of the people at the house was Arcadia football coach Derek Updike, who also taught Logan in fifth-grade writing. He called Logan a leader by example — somebody who always gave his full attention to any task. Logan helped the varsity football team on the sidelines when he was a freshman on the JV team and was a hard worker, his coach said.

“He really took initiative,” Updike said of Logan. “I remember we had him in fifth grade and … anytime we had a project or unstructured time, he just took initiative and was just one of the best partners you could have.”

“I went back and I still have samples of his writing. His improvement over the year was amazing. Even though it wasn’t necessarily something he liked to do, he would always give it an honest effort. He was the kind of kid who just always lived in the moment, and I really appreciated that about Logan.”

Three days after Logan’s memorial service, the team was preparing for its season opener against Webster. Players texted the Conrad family to say they planned to take care of business for Logan, which they did in a 36-6 win.

“I said, ‘We know what we’ve been through and we know this is an important game for us to do for Logan, but I want you to realize you’re not doing it in the result but in the spirit of who he was and what he was like. And he went every play full speed, so if you don’t do that it’s a dishonor to him,’” Updike said of his message to the team prior to kickoff. “I think they kind of felt that already, and they’ve been leaders in this and how to play with this intensity for Logan.”

The team made stickers for their helmets to honor Logan, and the team program reads ‘In our hearts forever’ next to his name on the team roster. His locker in the corner of the locker room is still in place and will stay there in his honor for the rest of the season, Updike said.

Though Logan’s life was cut short, he was loved by many and made an impact, his parents said, adding they were blessed to have him as their son. When Logan would tell his friends he was adopted, many didn’t believe him because he was such a natural fit with the Conrads in Arcadia.

“He acted just like my husband and his two brothers. He was the three of them rolled into one little person,” Dana said.

Her husband agreed.

“He became one of us. … We could have adopted a child and we heard stories about ones that didn’t adapt. But his sister brought him in and they were best buddies. From the day he got here, we never looked back.”