Hello everyone,
My name is Rob Whitehurst. I am a production sound mixer in central Florida. And I was one of Chip's friends. I knew him for over 10 years. We lost Chip Sunday in a single car accident on I-75 near Gainesville. We were all working of a movie in Albany, Georgia called Fireproof, being produced by the same folks who did Facing The Giants, which Chip also did some second unit work on. After a weekend home with family, everyone was on their way back to Albany for a hard day of shooting on Monday, with a train and a double car crash scene, in which Chip and his steadicam figured into greatly.
Chip's car suffered a rear tire blow out which sent him into a multiple flip. What we didn't know at the time was that even though he was wearing his seatbelt, the car came down right on top of the driver's side and he died at the scene. The co-producer came upon the scene, saw it was Chip's car and went to the hospital. It was a long night for everyone until we finally found out he had passed away.
Today was the funeral and it was very fitting of Chip. Over 100 members of the Florida film and television production community attended on top of all of Chip's other friends and family. It's been a very hard week and we all miss Chip terribly. I put it this way in an email I just sent out to a production list, I thanked Chip for being an inspiration and for living the near perfect life. You will meet few men of his kind in life and I just hate that one of the really good guys has been taken from this world that so desperately needs his influence.
Several have asked how they can help. Chip had no life insurance policy and his wife does not work (she was in school). She is also six months pregnant so the need is great and will be for some time.
We've set up a fund for her through PayPal and we have a website with a donate button on it. This is my first post here so I'm not sure if this board will pass through the URL or not so I'll try several times to make at least one work:
Day Rate For Chip
Our suggestion is to give what you can, but to also dedicate a day's job to Chip and his wife, working a job and then giving that day's wages to the fund. She get's 100% of the money's donated, minus a very small fee that PayPal collects for the service, and it goes directly into her bank account (we are leaving her name off of blogs for security reasons right now). I also have a blog at Tv.com where I go into a little more detail if you'd like to read that:
Sounddude's Profile at TV.com
If you need any other information, please feel free to contact me.
We have indeed lost one of the kindest, gentlest, and funniest men I've ever had the pleasure to know. And I know the tears are far from stopping their flow.
Thank you for the time,
Rob W.
Day Rate For Chip
