The past year has been one of extraordinary grief for the University and Charlottesville communities. As the academic year comes to a close, the student body honors the students we have lost — Hannah Graham, Peter D’Agostino, Connor Cormier and Hunter Smith. They will be fondly remembered.
Second-year College student Hannah Graham went missing Sept. 13. Her remains were discovered Oct. 18 in Albemarle County by searchers from the Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Office. Graham was 18 years old when she passed away and is survived by her parents John and Sue Graham, her brother James, extended family and friends.
Graham was a member of the Virginia Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team, as well as an active participant in community service, both in the local area and beyond.
Fourth-year College student Lani Galloway said she got to know Hannah during their Alternative Spring Break trip to Tuscaloosa, Alabama in 2014, when they became fast friends while building homes for Habitat for Humanity.
“We got to know each other over spring break, and she was just a hilarious, fun person to be around at all times,” Galloway said. “She just always made you laugh.”
In her honor, Galloway and fourth-year College student John Nesemann established an endowment to fully fund a single participant in ASB working for Habitat for Humanity, an organization that Hannah felt passionately about.
“She was sassy and fun, and that’s what I miss about her most — she could always turn something into a fun situation,” Galloway said.
The community was deeply impacted by Graham’s disappearance death, and she remains in our hearts.
Second-year Engineering student Connor Cormier passed away Oct. 14. Cormier was 19-years-old and is survived by his parents, Mark and Heidi Cormier, as well as extended family and friends.
Third-year Engineering student Himanshu Ojha worked with Connor at the April 2014 Hack-a-thon, an event where hundreds of students compete and collaborate in small groups to create programming applications.
“I didn’t really know what I was doing, and he was somewhat of a mentor to me,” Ojha said. “He was really nice about the fact that we didn’t know what we were doing and walked us through all the steps.”
To honor his memory, several students put together “Coding in Honor of Connor,” an event in November similar to the Hack-a-thon earlier last year, to celebrate the kinds of competition Cormier participated in and excelled at.
“He was no doubt very talented, but he was very humble about it,” Ojha said.
Second-year College student Peter D’Agostino passed away Nov. 20 at the age of 20. D’Agostino is survived by his parents, Mary Beth and Walter D’Agostino, as well as sisters Alexandra, Jane and Polly, of Greenwich, Connecticut. He also leaves behind his grandparents, aunts, uncles, extended family and friends both from his home and here in Charlottesville.
Second-year College student Vijay Menon, a close friend, said D’Agostino was a generous person, always sporting a cheerful attitude.
“I met Peter first through my Association Council in Gooch/Dillard, and one of the things that shocked me most about him, and I guess in general, was that he was always positive and enthusiastic about other people,” Menon said. “It really showed through his work in the Association Council.”
D’Agostino was pursuing an American Studies major at the University and enjoyed spending his time writing fiction and studying literature. He is also fondly remembered for his work in The Whethermen, a University improvisational comedy group.
“He was a really funny guy,” Menon said. “He would crack jokes all the time, and he could lighten up a room really quick. But when we were supposed to be working he could bring us back down to earth. He was a really amazing guy.”
Fourth-year College student Art Kulatti, a fellow member of The Whethermen, said D’Agostino was one of the brightest individuals he had met, though they did not know each other for long.
“It was such a short period of time we got to know him, but his personality and part in the group were hilarious,” Kulatti said. “We became best friends with him.”
To honor his memory, close friends and family began Peter Projects — who promotes personal acts of kindness and generosity, however small.
“One of his teachers from his high school that spoke [at the funeral] wanted to start this concept, Peter Projects, which could be anything from doing something for an individual person or bettering yourself — anything to advance the welfare because that’s how Peter approached life,” Menon said.
Fourth-year College student Hunter Smith passed away Dec. 17 at age 21. Smith was on track to graduate from the University May 2015 as a Mathematics major and an Environmental Sciences minor.
Carol Crawford Smith, Hunter’s mother, said Hunter was very excited to be a member of the University community, and the University was his first choice of college upon graduating from Blacksburg High School in 2011.
Carol Smith said he had been looking forward to a trip to California in January, where he hoped to find inspiration for his future career.
“He always was a planner, and once he planned his life and put his mind to achieving it, there’s no doubt he would,” she said.
Smith also possessed an affinity for learning foreign languages.
“During his first semester he studied Chinese — it was a language he always had a fascination for and wanted to learn more about,” his mother said. “The second summer of his being at U.Va. he studied Hebrew, and then he went on to study Hindi in his final semester, which was last fall. So he had a knack for learning languages, and he always had an interest in foreign cultures and other peoples’ cultures.
Smith was also a member of the University Gymnastics club and had participated in both gymnastics and diving while in high school.
“His ability was very natural,” his mother said. “He had a natural ability to flip, and a natural ability to twist and jump, and his love of gymnastics led him to start doing diving.”
In the 2010-11 school year, Hunter placed second in the state of Virginia in the AA division for diving.
“Hunter was an extremely loving human being — he loved life, he loved his family and he loved his friends,” his mother said. “Sadly, his death was an accident...that should not have happened, and we will always have the memory of our beloved Hunter and the great person that he was.”
The community mourns the loss of these wonderful students. The Cavalier Daily would like to express its deepest condolences to the friends and families of Hannah, Peter, Connor and Hunter.
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