The last time senior Ben Dower spoke to his friend Chris Elser was during the 2004 Carolina Cup horse races. Dower, then studying abroad in Denmark, made an impromptu phone call to Elser just as he was sitting trackside at his beloved races - but instead of being put on hold, Dower recalled his friend's enthusiastic greeting.
"He took fifteen minutes out of his day at the Carolina Cup to ask how I was doing," Dower said. "He was always there for his friends. That's what we should take away from his life."
Dower's anecdote was one of many shared by students during the memorial held at the Decker Garden Monday afternoon in honor of Elser, one year after the 20-year-old junior was killed by an unidentified intruder inside the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity house.
The memorial - organized by junior SAE brother Brian Kinsella, along with University Chaplain Sharon Kugler and Dean of Student Life Susan Boswell - began with a moment of silence to "honor the Elsers' Quaker practices," said Kinsella, after which the stage was opened to anyone who wished to speak.
A first glance at the estimated 150 students in attendance would have revealed little about the somber occasion - groups of friends chatted beside the Decker Garden's pond, and the mood, like the weather, was warm despite the occasion.
But at the end of a year marked by the tragic deaths of two more Hopkins students, senior Linda Trinh and sophomore Dominic Ferrara, Elser's memorial marked a period of grief and personal reexamination for many students.
"The first year without Chris is the hardest," said senior Cory Wingerter, "to come back here in the fall and not have his presence, his tough-guy attitude."
Many students at the memorial remembered Elser as a charismatic fraternity brother and athlete who balanced a love of partying with genuine compassion for his friends.
Sophomore Rodney Boden recalled meeting Elser during his first day at Hopkins.
"I walked into my Italian class, my first class at Hopkins, and I sit next to his scruffy-looking guy, who says to me, 'Hey, you're a freshman, aren't you?'" Boden said. "That whole semester, he was always there with a smile or a headache, depending on what the previous night was like."
Boden, who later pledged SAE, continued, "It's sad not seeing that smile anymore. He had a huge impact on me, on my choices."
Senior Peter Dixon spoke about Elser's leadership on his club soccer team: "One of the things he said to me was that you don't need a title to be a leader. He'd always had leadership qualities."
Even students who were not close to Elser participated in the remembrances, paying homage to his cheerful, approachable spirit.
"I didn't know Chris that well," said junior Jonina Lasser, "but I did his laundry for him my freshman year. That was my excuse to see him, my way of catching up with him."
Elser, who is survived by parents Kip and Rhetta Elser as well as two sisters, was also known to be family-oriented and devoted to his home state of South Carolina.
In celebration of his love of home and horse races, a large group of Elser's friends and SAE brothers traveled to see the Carolina Cup this spring in his memory.
Sophomore Dustin Tamsen commented on the lingering connection with Elser's family: "After getting down to South Carolina to see his family, I feel like a distant cousin. "
Others who made the commemorative trip to the Carolina Cup recounted that the experience was cathartic rather than melancholic.
"As I looked around me during the Cup, nobody was sad, because Chris was there," said senior Popi Benisch.
"He was there in Rhetta's kindness, he was there in Kip's generosity in buying us all tickets to the Cup, he was there in that we had two kegs under a tree and were blasting all his favorite songs."
After the memorial, attendees were invited to a reception at the SAE house. For many students who had lost a friend in Elser, the memorial's open and casual format struck a perfect note.
"I thought the format was really good, allowing everyone to express themselves candidly," said junior Pat Montague. "And his loyalty to friends can be seen in the response."
Montague added, "His death brought people together, and people have reached out to each other. There's a very un-Hopkins sense of community."
Despite the focus on positive memories, some students also commented on the issue of campus security after Elser's death, a source of concern that had been compounded by Trinh's murder in January.
"[Elser's death] was a sad reminder that we live in Baltimore," said senior Yasmine Assadipour.
For Kinsella, the tragedy of Elser's death could teach students about their responsibilities to keep the community and themselves safe.
"Hopefully, it will remind people to remember their personal security," Kinsella said. "It's like 9/11 - it's a tragedy, but people should be able to learn from it."
