Jeremy April, eighteen, a first-year student from Northvale, N.J., died April 29. His body was discovered in his room, and his death was ruled a suicide by officials.
In conversations on campus and at a memorial service on campus, he was remembered for his quiet and self-effacing nature, his dry wit, his talent for mathematics, and his promise at what many regard as the most spectacular and dangerous of winter sports, aerial skiing.
“I always pictured Jeremy going to the Olympics and doing really well and then going on to something like medicine…to give something back,” said Kelly Herrington, associate dean of admissions, who first met April as a prospective student and stayed in touch via e-mail while the skier traveled the competitive aerials circuit last winter.
April learned on April 19 that he had been named to the U.S. Aerial Ski Team for the 2002-03 season. On July 4, when he was to turn nineteen, he would have been eligible to perform triple maneuvers.
April, a Union scholar, was a promising student with a strong interest in mathematics, according to his faculty advisor. As other competitive skiers at Union have done, he planned to take winter terms to pursue international competition.
Dean of Students Fred Alford read an excerpt from April's admissions essay, in which he describes the thrill of skiing the “run of my life” at a moguls competition only to find that a timing malfunction would prevent him from winning. His essay went on to describe the protest he eventually won by digging through trash bags to find the hand-timed results that proved his case. Finally, he compares the experience of convincing the ski judges with that of making his case with the College's admissions office:
“Now I find myself going through another sort of dustbin, picking out occurrences to exemplify my character, determination, and academic abilities. And with these credentials, I am ready to meet another critical jury.”
Survivors include his
parents, Ernie and Nancy.