Yahoo News Angus Cloud's former teacher is raising funds to build a skate park in his memory
One of Angus Cloud's former teachers hopes to honor his memory with a skate park in the late actor's native Oakland.
Mike Oz, the executive director of the Oakland School for the Arts and former grade-school math teacher of the Euphoria star, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise $2 million for the construction of Cloud Memorial Park. Cloud — full name Conor Angus Cloud Hickey — was an OSA graduate and an avid skateboarder, and he and Oz would often skate together after school.
Cloud died at 25 in July, from an accidental drug overdose. Speaking to PEOPLE about the fundraiser, Oz remembered Cloud as a "very creative kid," and Cloud Memorial Park would reflect that, with Oz envisioning a stage and performance area, a tribute wall for kids to graffiti, a soccer field, and a basketball court. "I want to bring life to downtown," he said. "I want positivity. I want art. I want music. It all added up where this terrible situation should amount to something good."
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic Angus Cloud
The proposed park would sit at Telegraph Avenue and 19th Street and be "a core part" of the OSA Uptown Art Park. "It's not just in honor of Conor, but in memory of all the OSA students that we lost too young from suicide, murder, and drugs," Oz added. "I was very much a troubled kid, and it takes people to see your potential to get you out of that. For Conor's mom to tell me recently that I always saw his full potential meant the world to me. I hope that it will have that impact on people and be therapeutic for those who were close to Conor."
Skateboarding legend Tony Hawk has also thrown his support behind the project via his Skatepark Project foundation. "TSP and OSA value the building of spaces that support creativity," Hawk told PEOPLE, "and to establish this park in honor of Angus Cloud, a talented actor and skater who cared deeply for his community and was lost too soon, is fitting."
Cloud booked his first major role — as Fezco, a drug dealer with a heart of gold — on HBO's hit series Euphoria after he was discovered by a casting agent on the streets of New York. "The difference between me and everyone else who's famous [is] they were trying to go get famous, for the most part," Cloud told i-D earlier this year. "They were working hard, and they were like, 'I'm going to make it to the top.' For me, it was just like too good of an opportunity to say no to. I had no idea it would go this far."
Eddy Chen/HBO Maude Apatow as Lexi and Angus Cloud as Fez on 'Euphoria'
Cloud went on to land roles in the films North Hollywood and The Line, as well as the upcoming thriller Your Lucky Day, one of his final screen projects. Speaking to EW recently, Your Lucky Day director Daniel Brown said of working with Cloud, "As with all things Angus, what I remember was his kindness and enthusiasm for others. He was one of one."
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