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Blog and Media Roundup - Wednesday, October 27, 2010; News Roundup
Topic Started: Oct 27 2010, 03:40 AM (1,187 Views)
sceptical

http://news.duke.edu/2010/10/eversonmemorial.html

Remembering Drew Everson

At a memorial service, Everson is remembered as 'passionate and intelligent”


By James Todd

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Durham, NC -- More than 1,500 people gathered Wednesday, Oct. 27, in Duke Chapel for a memorial service for senior Drew Everson, who was remembered by faculty and students as vivacious and kind.

Everson, a political science major from Tampa, Fla., died Sunday following an accidental fall on campus on Friday.

The event, "A Service in Celebration of the Life of Drew Everson," included an a cappella performance by his Pi Kappa Phi fraternity brothers, scripture readings, a rendition of the pop song "The Time of Your Life," and remarks from friends and university leaders.

Duke dean for undergraduate education Steve Nowicki, who taught Everson in a class, remembered him as "passionate and intelligent."

"Drew embraced virtually every facet of what it means to be a Duke student," Nowicki said. "Drew seemed to be everywhere and involved in everything, and he did it all with warmth, a sense of generosity, an incisive intelligence -- and I must say a wickedly funny sense of humor."

Senior Zach Fuller said Everson was quick to make friends and stayed loyal to them.

"Despite having the fullest and most colorful Google calendar I've ever seen," Fuller said to laughter, "Drew would make an incredible effort to be there for a friend with any concern, big or small."

In his sermon, Duke Chapel Dean Sam Wells said Everson's badly injured body brought to mind Jesus' wounds from the Crucifixion and also the Christian hope of God's restoration of broken bodies.

"Our shattered brokenness will be taken up into His glory," Wells said, "and our ceaseless hemorrhaging will be incorporated into his heart."

In his remarks, President Richard H. Brodhead said that the example of Everson's vigorous life can serve as inspiration to other students to live lives of significance.

"Drew, your father told me you loved Duke, your mother told me you loved Duke and your brother told me you loved Duke, but I didn't need them to tell me, it was obvious that you loved Duke," Brodhead said. "Drew, Duke loved you and doesn't this room just show it. We will miss you. We will remember you. We will honor you in our living."

In addition to his fraternity work, Everson participated in the Duke Debate Team and Inside Joke comedy group. He wrote a satire column for the Chronicle and was pursuing a certificate in markets and management.

He is survived by his mother Kim, father Art and brother AJ, Duke class of 2009.

Further remembrances of Everson are posted on the Duke Chronicle website as "A Tribute to Drew Everson."
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sceptical


At Duke: Who didn't know Drew?


Submitted by eferreri on 10/27/2010 - 14:03

The question was rhetorical. The answer, a given.

Though acknowledging that he hadn't known Drew Everson nearly as well as so many of those attending a memorial service Wednesday, Duke President Richard Brodhead told his story of his first interaction with the popular student.

Though just a freshman, Everson stood out at the mixer for new students Brodhead hosted several years ago. He was the extrovert, the one with a little more self-confidence, a little more pizazz to his personality. The one you noticed.

"I, too, knew him," Brodhead said, speaking after several of Everson's friends told stories about their fallen buddy. "Because is there anyone at Duke who didn't know him?"

Everson died Sunday after what the university has deemed an accidental fall. On Wednesday, mourners packed Duke Chapel to laugh and cry and remember a student they insisted was not your ordinary 21-year-old.

It was a ceremony marked by light moments and wrenching ones, as friend after friend tried to explain Everson's particular brand of interpersonal magic.

They spoke of his many loves - Duke basketball, deep debate and a good scotch whiskey.

They spoke of his dedication and loyalty to his friends, and his uncanny knack for always being the best shoulder to cry on.

"Drew was the person to call about absolutely anything," said Lauren Haigler, a friend Everson comforted as she struggled with her parents' divorce. "He was the perfect friend."

As his friends describe him, Everson was one of those devour-and-cherish-every-moment sorts - like the time he and friends jumped into a fountain in downtown Indianapolis at 4 a.m. earlier this year after having watched Duke win the national basketball title in that city.

Another friend, Matt Byrne, read aloud a letter to Everson.

"You see beyond the superficial," he said. "You see me for who I am."

There were more than 1,000 mourners at Duke Chapel Wednesday, and for the most part, they seemed to hold it together.

Until the end.

That's when Edie Wellman, another Duke student, closed the memorial with a poignant, utterly brave solo. Saluting her friend by wearing a Led Zeppelin T-shirt and strumming a guitar, Wellman sang the Green Day song "The Time of Your Life," and it wasn't easy.

Her lilting voice trembled as she worked her way through the song. Stanza after stanza, she inhaled deeply and forged on, her visceral grief on public display.

Across Duke Chapel, people inhaled with her. You could feel it.

She could barely speak the last lines:

"It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.

I hope you have the time of your life."

With that, she leaned into the microphone, and whispered: "I love you, Drew."


Read more: http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/at-duke-who-didnt-know-drew#ixzz13cPNjmYb
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