Maxwell Harris Guida of Owens Cross Roads, Alabama died tragically on August 15, 2020 in Tuscaloosa, AL as he prepared to begin his sophomore year at the University of Alabama.  He was 19 years old.

Max was a talented writer, musician, and an avid runner.  He played many instruments, but was a particularly gifted guitarist.  Max was so dedicated to practice; his parents had to impose a rule at home: No guitar playing before 5 a.m.

A passionate reader, Max hungered for conversations about writers, including Kurt Vonnegut, Nathaniel West, Alan Moore, Thomas Pynchon and David Foster Wallace.  He would think nothing of texting a cousin at 2 a.m. to share a literary thought or observation.  Above all, he was a highly creative person, whose passion for telling a story was not limited to a single form: He wrote poetry, short stories, songs, had begun a novel, and was planning a graphic novel.

His musical tastes were unbound by genre.  He sought out classical pieces as readily as Sinatra, the Beatles, 70's bands, blues, folk, even electronically generated synthesizer music.  Any composition in which "he could see the creativity and quality in it," said his mother, Andrea, "appealed to him more than its popularity."  He was as drawn to visual art, and during a family trip last summer to France, pursued works he wanted to see with his own eyes, including by René Magritte in Paris and Salvador Dalí in Bruges.

At the University of Alabama, he was a member of The Blount Scholars Program, a selective and intellectually demanding liberal arts course of study.  He was recently admitted to the Honors College.  When interviewing Max for entry into The Blount Scholars, Professor Fred Whiting, who is the program's director, recalled a lively Zoom conversation.

"We talked about literature (Steinbeck, Vonnegut, Ayn Rand, Marx), and the nature of creativity, and musical improvisation, and how much he valued his family and his friends," said Whiting.   As the conversation continued, Whiting found "just what I'd seen in his application—curiosity, kindness, a wry and bemused intelligence, and a yearning to find other people that had a similar incandescence about the possibilities of living a life.  And when we hung up, I remember saying to myself, 'I hope to god he comes.'"

While Blount Scholars are all "good" students, said Whiting, "a significantly smaller subset of these have what I call 'the pure thing'—an apprehension that the world is wide, our time is short, what's beyond is uncertain, and so we'd better make this count.  These students you fall in love with." Max, he said, was one of those.

The first addition to a military family, Max was born on September 22, 2000 in Watertown, New York to Andrea Pappano and Spencer Guida, while stationed with the US Army at Fort Drum, NY.  Max's brother, Chase, was born at Fort Lewis, WA on July 19, 2002.

Max and Chase adapted well to the climates of the Pacific Northwest and the desert heat of a subsequent move to Yuma Proving Grounds in Yuma, Arizona.   The family ultimately settled in Owens Cross Roads, AL following Spencer's last assignment at Redstone Arsenal in 2008, and retirement from the Army in 2015.  As an avid outdoorsman, Spencer planned regular hunting and camping trips with Max and Chase, as well as extended family.  In a college admissions essay, Max included mention of one such trip to Wyoming just after he had discovered Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" in a used bookstore and brought it with him.

"I could write a separate essay on the 15 mile-a-day walks, carrying rifles and 50-pound bags, down ravines and up cliffs, through biting snowfalls and scorching, cloudless skies," Max wrote. "But as I read that book, I was blown away by almost every word. It was weird and brilliant and thought provoking in the endless intricacies hidden below the apparent randomness of Vonnegut's writing."  This book, Max wrote, spurred an awakening furthered through his high school's writing club.

Max graduated from New Hope High School in 2019, where he was a top performer on the school's Varsity Cross Country team.  He played saxophone in the school marching band and guitar in the jazz band.  He reached the rank of "Life Scout" in the Boy Scouts of America, enjoying the camaraderie and friendships it provided.

In recent weeks, he helped Chase complete his Eagle Scout service project, and celebrated Chase's 18 ^th birthday with a tandem freefall jump from 14,000 feet with Chase and his Dad.

Max leaves his parents, Andrea L. Pappano and Spencer C. Guida, his brother, Chase R. Guida; grandparents Suzanne J. Guida of East Lyme, CT, Alexander S. Guida III of Munsonville, N.H., JoAnne S. Pappano and Robert W. Norton of Kent, CT.  Aunts and uncles, Laura M. Pappano and Thomas J. Lynch of New Haven, CT; Margaret A. Pappano and Adnan Husain of Queens, Ontario, Canada; Ellen Bass Pappano and Dante A. Pappano of Knoxville, TN; Christopher A. Guida and Lynn A. Guida of Lyndeborough, NH; Andrea G. Sambrook and Andrew W. Sambrook of Dorset, VT; Kimberley F. Guida and William E. Brock of Pullman, WA; and cousins Olivia F. Pappano Lynch of Rochester, N.Y., Molly T. Pappano Lynch of Dallas, TX, Donovan J. Pappano Lynch of New Haven, CT, Hamza Husain of Queens, Ontario, Canada,  Georgia T. Pappano, Madeline H. Pappano, Samantha B. Pappano and Maille C. Pappano of Knoxville, TN; Gabriel D. Guida, Casimir A. Guida and Juliana Z. Guida of Lyndeborough, NH; Bennet N. Sambrook and Will A. Sambrook of Dorset, VT; and Sage C. Brock and Reed S. Brock of Pullman, WA.

A celebration of life ceremony will take place on Saturday, August 29, 2020 at the Monte Sano State Park Lodge, 5105 Nolen Ave SE, Huntsville, AL 35801 from 2-6 p.m. (Central Time). All are welcome.  Live streaming will be available, additional details to follow at https://www.forevermissed.com/maxwell-harris-guida/about .

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in Max's memory to The Blount Scholars Program at the University of Alabama.

https://give.ua.edu/?d=3e1b25dc-4fbd-4c71-abc0-9bd8c8b8af36

Notes:

1. Ignore the "Choose Fund" section
2. Give the page a minute to load, since it's autopopulating information. It may actually take an entire minute .  Enduser will know the page has loaded when they see "Blount Undergraduate Gift Fund" in the "My Gift to Alabama" section
3. Fill in amount
4. Select Gift Type
5. Select Gift Options

1. Select "Anonymous" if desired
2. Select "Make a tribute gift in honor/memory" then select "In memory of"
3. Tributee's Full Name = Maxwell Harris Guida
4. Ignore Tributee's Contact Information  (that's for "In honor of" donations)
5. If donors want to know what Blount is doing with their donation, they can check "Notify additional individual of my gift" and put in my name with my email address for the address lines.  Otherwise, they'll get a general acknowledgment from Development people.

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