 "Photo: Dean Sagun")
Some had dedicated their whole lives to the University. Others had yet to begin their UT careers.
No matter what their age, experience or connection to the University, the UT community paused Friday during the annual UT Remembers ceremony to honor the 143 Longhorns who died over the past year.
Approximately 300 friends, family and faculty members gathered next to the turtle pond in the Tower Garden on Friday as they remembered their loved ones, celebrated their lives and mourned their loss.
"Today we mourn them as a community," UT President Larry Faulkner said at the event. "When we lose one of them, it's personal."
The annual ceremony, which begins with the lowering of the flags in the morning and ends with the darkening of the Tower at dusk, began in 1998 and is hosted each year by the UT Cares Committee and student groups such as the Texas Blazers and Orange Jackets, said Kathy Fries, program coordinator for the Office of Relationship Management and University Events.
Bagpipes opened and ended the ceremony, which included remarks by Faulkner and Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Neal Armstrong.
After the reading of a poem from the Hebrew Union Prayer Book titled "We Remember Them," the Tower bell tolled 143 times, once for each honoree as his or her name was read aloud.
Armstrong said each chime represented a unique story.
"As the bells echo across campus, we remember the remarkable community of individuals who have breathed life into this campus," Faulkner said. "When they leave us, we miss them."
Although the tone of the event was solemn, many friends and family members were eager to share stories of their loved ones.
Linda Davis, mother of former Longhorn band member Judson "JD" Davis, a kinesiology graduate student, who died Jan. 19 of a congenital heart disease while on the band's trip to march in the presidential inaugural parade, said she knew JD would have been honored by the ceremony.
"It was a wonderful tribute to these precious lives that I know this University loved," she said. "But they also loved it, too."
Communication freshman Rolando "Roli" Sanchez was also among those honored at the ceremony. Rolando died during spring break March 20 when he was hit by a taxi on South Padre Island. His mother, father, grandparents, sister, aunt and some of his Sigma Nu brothers gathered after the service to share memories of Roli's life.
Sanchez's mother, Idalia Villareal, said he loved the University but also missed his friends back home in Laredo. She said the Web site he created with journal entries and pictures of him and his friends has helped all of them cope with his loss and to know another part of his life.
"[The Web site has] been wonderful for us after his passing to help us deal with this," she said.
Austinite Leslie Bennett attended the ceremony along with her mother to honor her father, Solon Bennett, who taught classes at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs for about 30 years. He died of Parkinson's disease at the age of 82 on Nov. 17, 2004, she said.
Bennett said he was very proud that all four of his children graduated from the University.
"He was the son of immigrants, so he thought education was the most important thing," she said. "My father once told me, 'They can take away everything from you, but they can't take away your education.'"
After the ceremony, the guests mingled with UT administrators, students and other attendees and were invited to submit a commemorative writing about their loved one to be put in University archives along with each honoree's name.
"We are better because they were a part of us, and they will forever be a part of the heart of The University of Texas at Austin," Armstrong said.
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