On Oct. 14, the campus community at East Tennessee State University gathered together to attend the annual “ETSU Remembers” event, a candlelight ceremony that honors and celebrate the lives of both students and staff members that have recently passed away.
Typically, the ceremony honors individuals who have died within the past year, but due to restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, this month’s ceremony highlighted those from both 2020 and 2021.
“We are gathered here tonight to take time to reflect upon, remember and celebrate the lives of these members of our ETSU family,” said Brian Noland, ETSU President. “Thank you for sharing a moment of your lives today. Thank you for sharing the lives of your loved ones with the institution. We are better because of it.”
The ceremony consisted of an opening by the Student Government Association President Mason Mosier, remarks from President Noland, performances of Eric Clapton’s “Tears in Heaven” and Black Pumas’ “Colors” by the ETSU Contemporary Collective and an invocation by Reverend Jonathan Chapman. It concluded with a candle lighting, complete with a flame to represent each student and staff member, done by Mosier, Joy Fulkerson and Stephen Hendrix.
“For some of us, the shock of the loss is fresh, and the picture is shattered,” Chapman said. “For others, we put the pieces back together, but the picture still has a hole.”
This statement reigns true for Rodney and Karen Durham, who lost their son Travis to a stroke in June 2020. Travis, a Sturgis, Kentucky, native, was pursuing a Master of Science in geosciences with a paleontology concentration at the time of his death. According to his obituary, he hoped to become a vertebrae paleontologist.
Travis’ parents found a reminiscent sense of pride in explaining how he went on to become an organ donor through the Donate Life Foundation, which helped provide the inspiration behind the theme of NASCAR driver Joey Gase’s Donate Life race car.
In addition to Travis Durham, this year’s “ETSU Remembers” ceremony honored students Jessica Colter, Lisa Copeland, Diane Dane, Riley Morris and Denver Mount, as well as faculty members Aaron “Frosty” Foster, Robin Leonard, Patsy Pampkin, Jayneal Benjamin Joseph and Nathan Tino.
