Freshman's Friends Hold Service to Remember

More than 50 people packed Memorial Church's Appleton Chapel yesterday afternoon to pay their respects to a freshman who committed suicide last month.

A member of the freshman football team, Samuel J. Burke lived in Grays Hall and was a native of Hornell, N.Y.

Burke's expository writing teacher and friends contributed to yesterday's memorial service, speaking of their acquaintance with him.

"I feel lucky to have known Sam, to have taught him in my class, and I hope to have learned from him," Burke's writing teacher, Cherryl Armstrong, said at yesterday's service.

"For certainly Sam was someone to learn from, an individual of great warmth, sensitivity, intelligence and good spirit," she added.

Burke's friend Taaka Awori also delivered a speech of her memories of the upstate New York native. Michelle Webb, another one of Burke's friends, read the poem "Slow me down, Lord!" by Gail Bishop.

The 40-minute service was led by Father Akers of Boston College, who knew Burke well, according to Armstrong.

"I am encouraged because along with my sadness, I take away with me today a sense of the caring that exists in this community, the knowledge that Sam will be remembered here with deep affection and respect, and the belief that Sam's good nature, humour and sweetness will be, for us, exemplary," Armstrong said at the service.

Armstrong said last night "it was a good feeling that we got together" at the memorial service.