'Gentle Giant' Connor Kincaid's legacy continues through trade-focused scholarship – The Quad-City Times
Don Kincaid gives a check to to the Quad Cities Community Foundation at The Cigar Social to support a scholarship fund set up in memory of his son, Connor Kincaid.
Connor Kincaid’s life was cut short in a 2017 motorcycle crash, yet the 24-year-old still impacts many people in his community today.
That impact includes a scholarship fund established in his memory, which started giving scholarships earlier this year, managed by the Quad Cities Community Foundation.
Kincaid was known as “the Gentle Giant”, a 6-foot, 2-inch man with a kind soul who graduated from Pleasant Valley High School in 2011 and worked for K&K Hardware as the rental manager until his death.
His father, Don Kincaid, remembers not only his son’s kindness but also his curiosity.
“Sometimes, he enjoyed challenges. He always enjoyed trying to figure things out, put things together,” Kincaid said.
A photo of Connor Kincaid, taken by his father Don Kincaid.
Connor enjoyed building custom Harley motorcycles and longboards with friends. His dream was to make his own custom Harley company with two of his friends.
Connor left behind many friends. Don said that in the days following Connor’s death, a coworker, who still works at K&K to this day, told him that she “lost her best friend.”
A few days ago, Don met a man around the same age as his son would have been. He asked him where and when he went to high school and the man answered he graduated from Pleasant Valley High School in 2011. Don asked whether he knew his son and the man said that he was one of his best friends.
That good friend of Connor, Max Gerega, unknown to Don, often came over to his house to work on middle school class projects.
Gerega remembered Connor’s kindness above all else.
Max Gergera, a close friend of Connor Kincaid, came to the check presentation to take photos and show support.
“He was always a pretty cool guy, just to accept everybody, and I don’t know, he always reached out, even though other people wouldn’t. So, he would just be that guy who you would just want to give a hug too. So, he was always kind of like that big teddy bear,” Gerega said.
And like many, Gerega noticed Connor’s ability to create things with his hands.
“And that was one of the cool kind of things I liked about him, is that he stood out by being able to have that imagination to see what can we create? And we executed it, and we actually got a good grade,” Gerega said about one project where they built a pyramid.
He still has the sculpture today.
Connor’s life impacted so many people, Don decided to continue his legacy through a memorial scholarship in 2023. He went to Pleasant Valley and worked with the district to create the scholarship and then officially ran it through the Quad Cities Community Foundation.
Through collaboration with a local cigar lounge, The Cigar Social, he began gaining funds for the scholarship. Cigar Social owner Chuck Ripley held a motorcycle ride in honor of Connor in the summer of 2024 and and this year ran the Green Jacket Open golf event to raise money for the memorial scholarship.
On Tuesday, Don Kincaid and Ripley presented a check for more than $4,000 to the Community Foundation for the scholarship fund, just one of many the foundation manages.
The $1,000 scholarship was first awarded this past May to a Pleasant Valley High School senior who is heading into construction management. Don was excited about the news since the scholarship is meant for students planning to head into the trades.
The reason goes back to when Don remembered a train trip he took to Salt Lake City with his son while Connor was in high school. There, Connor told Don he didn’t want to go to college because, he said, he would waste his father’s money and his own time.
“He was right. He was not one that looked to school. He was entrepreneurial in his attitude. He liked to figure things out on his own, and he did build a fair number of motorcycles on his own, traded them and sold them,” Don said.
Connor’s passion was for the trades and so his father was dedicated to focusing the scholarship on what his son would have done.
“My wife and I both graduated or went to college. It was kind of strange when our son didn’t, but we understand that, number one, our community, our world, needs more people that are willing to do that hands-on-kind of work, and we want to make sure that those folks are given the opportunity,” Don said.
Davenport high school seniors in the inaugural John Deere Scholars cohort received the announcement during a surprise ceremony with officials from the district, John Deere and the University of Iowa on Monday, March 10, 2025.
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Don Kincaid gives a check to to the Quad Cities Community Foundation at The Cigar Social to support a scholarship fund set up in memory of his son, Connor Kincaid.
Max Gergera, a close friend of Connor Kincaid, came to the check presentation to take photos and show support.
A photo of Connor Kincaid, taken by his father Don Kincaid.
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