The day was bright and cheerful on this past Tuesday. Some would use those same words to describe Everett Glenn’s smile.
“He’s probably the most genuine human being I’ve ever met,” Stephen Bezer ’15 said. Bezer had known Glenn from Montclair Kimberly Academy, the high school they both attended. Their experiences in high school made them friends, but as Bezer tells it, it was living with him at Lafayette that made Glenn family. When the two first met in high school, Bezer had been a new student in his freshman year.
“He came up to me, asked me who I was, introduced himself,” Bezer said. “I was new to the high school. He had come up from the middle school, so he knew a lot of people, and I was just trying to get adjusted.”
This kind of behavior was normal for Glenn. Typical adjectives such as kind or nice are not frequently used when describing him. Instead, seniors will tell you he was “genuine,” “accepting” and “bubbly.”
Alan Flannigan ‘15 remembers Glenn as a man who “personified the Marquis de Lafayette.” Damilare Oyefeso ‘15 thinks of him similarly.
“If he was still here, he’d be the Pepper Prize Winner, because that’s the kind of person he was,” Oyefeso said confidently.
Glenn passed away on All College Day, May 5, 2012. That was also the day of his 19th birthday. For a good part of the senior class, Glenn is not defined by his death, but rather his life and love for Lafayette. It is the reason they have had a memorial for him every year since his passing.
“Every year, I felt like we needed a little event, a little gathering, in remembrance of Ev because he had such a huge impact on a lot of people’s lives in such a short period of time,” Bezer said.
Hours after his passing there was a candlelight vigil. In the years after, there have been memorials which have had a significant turn out. The gathering for Everett this past Tuesday was attended by over one hundred individuals.
“I look around I also see juniors, sophomores and even some first-years. They never met Ev, but they still came out because they know how much he meant to us,” Bezer said at the beginning of the memorial.
Glenn had been a varsity athlete on the fencing team in his time here at Lafayette. The Athletic Department, according to Flannigan, has been very active in remembering Glenn. They have sent e-mails out each year to spread the word of Glenn’s memorials. Yet even to the athletics department, Glenn was more than a student.
Glenn and Bezer had been roommates in Kirby residence hall their freshman year. During the year, bonds of friendship quickly formed between the two roommates, the basketball players and the football players on that floor. Flannigan remembers that even the coaches realized how important Glenn was to their players.
“The coaches always saw him around,” Flannigan said. “He was always at games, always came out to support.”
About 10 minutes before the memorial began, the sky turned overcast, and it began to drizzle. It added to the heavy atmosphere of the event, where only a few people were able to speak, but many wept silently. It was held right outside of Kirby Hall, where there is a tree, plaque, and bench in memorial for Everett.
“This isn’t necessarily a goodbye, but it’s a thank you for guiding us through our years here at Lafayette, making sure we stay on the right track, and always knowing that there was someone looking down, making sure that everything was going to go well,” Bezer said of Glenn.
This may be the last time a memorial will be held for Glenn.
“There probably wouldn’t be any more gatherings, because we were the last class to know him,” Bezer said. Seth Hinrichs ‘15, one of the basketball players Glenn was close with agrees. However, he still hopes for Lafayette to remember Glenn.
“I think moving forward, people aren’t going to really know who Everett was, [yet] I hope that there is something to remember him by. I think the plaque and the tree is something, but even just remembering what happened on the day that he passed away, and how that’s impacted the community here at Lafayette [is important].”
Flannigan hesitated in using Glenn’s name when addressing the Good Samaritan policy “out of respect of his family,” and the negative connotations that may be associated with the circumstances of his passing.
However, Oyefeso wishes that Lafayette would remember Glenn, especially when speaking about the Good Samaritan policy. Her suggestion is contingent upon how Glenn’s character is portrayed.
“I think it’s insensitive to turn him into the kid that died. Who he was is a really big deal in terms of the impact [understanding Good Samaritan] would have on [future students],” she said. “Everett wasn’t a crazy drinker. He was an engineer. He was in POSP. He really was just one of those responsible guys. When I lost someone who I know is smart, that made me realize it could happen to anyone.”
Hinrichs had a change of view on the policy due to Glenn.
“Originally I was pretty opposed to it, but there haven’t been any terrible incidents since it has been implemented so I think it’s done what it’s supposed to do,” he said. “It makes better teammates too, with people looking out for each other. Making sure everyone is good and not by themselves.”
Bezer, who is instrumental in remembering Everett, is looking forward to getting a job after graduation. But he also has a larger goal–living up to Glenn’s legacy.
“I just want to embody who he was,” Bezer said. “He loved this campus and every body on it. I just wanted to be half the man he was; try to incorporate every one that I could, just have them feel like they have someone to turn to. That’s who he was.”
It is unclear whether there will be something special for Glenn at graduation or during senior week. What is evident however, is the amount of hearts Glenn touched in just his freshman year.
“If you knew him for a year, you knew him for a day, you knew him for a lifetime,” Bezer said.
