From left, Jeff Geoghegan, Corey Elliot, Mike Adams, Evan Checkeye, Chad Neiman, Ryan Wright, Lucas Lipp pose for photograph in Pittsburgh during a trip. Neiman died in 2022, and in response, his friends, family and fellow classmates from Greenwood Community High School Class of 2006 created a memorial fund in his honor.
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No one was a stranger.
Friends and family of Chad Neiman describe him in a lot of different ways. He was gregarious and thoughtful, hard-working and always up for a good time. If someone needed help, he was often the first one to step forward to do whatever he could.
But more than anything else, Neiman treated people — from childhood friends to those he just met — like old buddies.
“He loved everybody. He would help anybody who needed help and never expect anything in return,” said Dee Neiman, his mother.
Neiman’s spirit of selflessness, kindness and giving has carried on even after his death in 2022 at age 34. His loved ones have created the Chad Neiman Memorial Fund, raising money to award scholarships to Greenwood Community High School students, where Neiman graduated from.
The foundation has found great success in less than two years, raising more than $10,000 and giving out its first round of three scholarships last spring. Organizers have been so encouraged that they’ve worked to increase their reach — from helping collect coats, food and toys for the needy to helping collect school supplies for Greenwood students.
“Chad was a very giving person — maybe too much sometimes. But this helps show what he was all about,” said Chelsea Mowry, Neiman’s sister.
Just as Neiman was a whirlwind of positivity during his lifetime, his friends and family want his memory to continue being a force for good.
“He’s not gone, and all of these things are happening in his name. In that sense, as many people as he knew, far more people are going to know about him without ever having meet him,” said Corey Elliot, one of Neiman’s close friends. “All the things we’re doing, it’s just like meeting him, because that’s exactly the kind of thing Chad would do for people.”
Neiman was born in Indianapolis but grew up in Greenwood at their family’s home around Valle Vista Golf Club.
Corey Elliot remembers the first time he met Neiman. They had just moved to Greenwood, living in the apartments across the street from Valle Vista. Neiman’s cousin happened to live in the same apartment complex, and one day rode his bicycle over.
Spotting Elliot, Neiman asked if he wanted to ride bikes around the golf course.
“I didn’t know him at all. From then on, we were pretty inseparable,” Elliot said.
Throughout childhood, a core group of friends coalesced around Neiman — first at Isom Elementary School, then in middle school and eventually in high school. The group had a special connection that persevered into adulthood.
“The unique thing about a lot of our friends, from age 5 or 6 and up through middle school, the group that we still weekly hang out with have been friends that long. It’s a rare thing,” “It’s not a matter of if we’re hanging out again, it’s when we’re hanging out again.”
In high school, Neiman was on the golf team at Greenwood, where Rick Guipe was a coach both in football and golf. Guipe remembered Neiman as a great golfer, fun-loving and a good kid to have on the team.
“He was the type of kid, in class and even in the golf course a little bit, you had to keep a tight rein on. He was wild. He liked having fun, so I had to make sure he was on the up-and-up. But I swear, I loved him,”
Neiman graduated from Greenwood Community High School in 2006 before moving on to attend IUPUI. He started his own lawn and landscaping business while in high school, and turned Extreme Estates into his career. His business turned into another outlet to meet new people, treating his clients like lifelong friends.
“He’s not just going to landscape or mow your grass. He’s going to do the work, and then he’s going to come in and talk with you for 30 minutes, ask how things are going, get to know you,” Elliot said. “That’s the way he touched people — he could talk to anybody.”
Neiman’s impact on everyone around him made his death on April 13, 2022 so much harder to accept. Elliot remembers being at Tried & True Alehouse with another friend when they heard.
“We were sitting together the day when everything happened. By the end of the night, we had more than 20 people there. We took over the bar area. There were a lot of tears, a lot of laughter, a lot of ‘what the heck just happened?’” he said.
Neiman was the third close friends the group had lost at an early age. Their grieving process quickly turned to anger — why was this happening again?
That anger instigated action.
“It wasn’t shaking your fist at the sky — we were thinking about what we were going to do,” Elliot said. “That afternoon, I remember the group chat saying we had to start a scholarship in his name.”
The Chad Neiman Memorial Fund was founded to provide opportunities for Greenwood students and residents. Organizers met with representatives with the Greenwood Education Foundation to go through the process of setting up a scholarship fund, and mere months after Neiman’s death, they started fundraising.
They also approached Guipe about helping with the effort.
“It was something I wanted to do; when they asked, it was an absolute yes, because Chad was just that guy, the one everyone loved,” Guipe said. “He was somebody who was a hard worker, and we wanted to do something to honor that memory, because he had gone so young.”
Family and friends attended community events to pass out information, and blasted donation links on social media. Lauren Edwards, Neiman’s longtime girlfriend, decided to start a memorial golf outing for Chad and his father Jerry, which offered another opportunity to spread awareness about their goal and collect donations.
“I figured what better way to honor them than to have people gather in their name and have fun together doing what the two of them loved doing,” Edwards said. “The golf outing is fun because people come from all over to get together for a day of golf, reminisce on the good times with them, laugh, and celebrate their lives.”
Money came rushing in; by October, they had raised more than $3,500.
Eventually, though, the rush of giving subsided. Organizers wanted to figure out a way to sustain what was started. They found an engine to do so through John Gladish, owner of Tried & True Alehouse.
“I reached out to John on Facebook, and within 12 hours, he messaged me back, saying, ‘As a Greenwood alum, I’d be honored,’” Elliot said. “It seemed like a good start.”
The two met for lunch about a week later. From the start, Gladish was on board. He offered to host dine-to-donate nights at Tried & True to support the scholarship fund, in addition to donating $500 in recognition of the month Neiman was born and when he died.
Gladish pledged 10 cents from every tenderloin sold at the restaurant, and for Neiman’s favorite bar drink, he offered 25 cents from each of those. Every time someone bought Chad’s Washington Apple, a quarter went into the scholarship fund.
“I had to go home and process it, did this really happen? Did he, really not even knowing us, just do that?” Elliot said.
The partnership has been incredibly fruitful, with Tried & True providing thousands of dollars for the scholarship fund.
In May 2023, the Chad Neiman Memorial Fund awarded its first three scholarships to Greenwood seniors Jordan Bonser, Nathan Kremer and Naomi Weaver.
“I hate that he’s gone and I miss him every single day. But seeing the community rally around the fund we created reminds me of who Chad was. He was everything right and good in the world,” Edwards said. “He had the most giving heart. He was always helping others any way he could.
“He was always giving to other people and to see people giving back to the community in his name just shows the ripple effect … that he is still creating even after he’s gone.”
With the support from Tried & True, as well as everyone in the community, organizers of the memorial fund have set their sights further. They have partnered with the Refuge, an organization that focuses resources on helping people within the local community, to collect items for its after-school tutoring program.
Money from the scholarship fund can’t go directly towards other organizations; they can only be used for scholarships, Elliot said. But they can use the momentum built in Neiman’s memory to support other causes.
“Those efforts can still be in his name. We may not be the presenting entity for a food drive, but we can a part of the process,” Elliot said. “At the end of the day, that’s what it’s all about.”
For nearly two years, loved ones have lived with the hole left by Neiman’s death. They feel his loss everyday; it’s not going away.
But the work that has gone into the Chad Neiman Memorial Fund has helped make it a little bit easier.
“I love it. It means a lot that they’re doing what they’re doing to carry it on,” Dee Neiman said.
AT A GLANCE
Chad Neiman Memorial Fund
What: A scholarship fund created in honor of Neiman, a 2006 Greenwood Community High School graduate, to provide opportunities for Greenwood students and the local community
How to help: Go to greenwoodeducationfoundation.org/donate. Please note it’s for the Chad Neiman Memorial Fund. Checks can also be dropped of at the foundation’s home, 605 W. Smith Valley Road, Greenwood. Links can be found on Facebook and Instagram to donate, as well as get information on upcoming fundraisers and events.
Tried & True Alehouse, 2800 S. SR 135 Suite 100, Greenwood, is also offering 10 cents from every tenderloin and 25 cents from the specialty drink, Chad’s Washington Apple, are donated to the fund.
Information: greenwoodeducationfoundation.org or chadneimanmemorial.com
