By Menachem Wecker
Even weeks after the tragic death of sophomore Taylor Hubbard, friends and acquaintances continued to leave appreciative comments and to post pictures on his Facebook page and a fan page.
“Rest in peace,” wrote one person who met Taylor in the Boy Scouts. “You were such a nice person .... I hope you are in a better place now.”
“I am still waiting to wake up, to realize that all of this is a bad dream and that the friend that I have had for the past few years is still here, helping his friends however he can, even if that only meant shooting a smile to someone who needed to see it,” wrote someone else in a post that drew 12 comments.
On Sunday, May 16, just hours after Taylor died from injuries he sustained after falling from the window of a GW residence hall, the university community observed a moment of silence at Commencement on the National Mall for the engineering student from Lexington Park, Md.
A candlelight vigil at Great Mills High School, in Great Mills, Md., drew friends of his son’s from all over the country, according to Wayne Hubbard. “We just never imagined the number of people Taylor touched so deeply,” he says.
At the vigil, one of Taylor’s friends from GW said that Taylor knew every homeless person within five blocks by name. “That doesn’t surprise me,” says Mr. Hubbard. “He saw the best part of people. He could block out anything negative and only see the positive. He could bring people out of their shell. He had a marvelous gift. I don’t think I will ever see that again in a lifetime.”
According to Mr. Hubbard, Taylor was very engaged at Patuxent Presbyterian Church in California, Md., where he participated in vacation bible school throughout high school, mentored younger children and organized plays and activities. “He made stronger faith that I had even imagined,” Mr. Hubbard says.
Not only did each of the hundreds of church congregants know Taylor, but he made a deep impression at his high school as well. One high school teacher at Great Mills had a child who was scared of babysitters but absolutely loved Taylor when he came over to sit. When Taylor learned that one of his classmates was considering dropping out of school her senior year, he convinced her to stay in school and graduate. Some would have stopped there, but Taylor helped his friend go to college, where he tutored her and even held conferences with her professors. “She said if it wasn’t for him, she would not have finished high school,” Mr. Hubbard says. “She just finished her sophomore year in college.”
In his selfless devotion to family and friends, Taylor was not looking for any glory or acknowledgement. “He just did these things because he really loved people no matter where they were from or what background they had,” Mr. Hubbard says. “It is so beyond anything I can even imagine striving to be.”
According to Mr. Hubbard, his son was also a natural athlete, who played lacrosse, soccer and wrestled throughout high school, and took up ultimate Frisbee as a student at GW. Athleticism runs in the family on his wife Kay’s side, Mr. Hubbard says, and Taylor’s older brother Sean is also athletic. “I’ve never seen brothers as close as those two,” Mr. Hubbard says of his sons, who also considered their dogs Lady and Biscuit part of the family.
Taylor’s interest in engineering, which he studied at GW, dates back to high school, says Mr. Hubbard, who is an engineer himself. After losing most of the sight in his left eye in a high school accident, Taylor, rather than feeling dejected about not being able to wrestle, joined the engineering club and adopted biomedical engineering, particularly prosthetics, as his career path. As part of the engineering club, Taylor built robots and competed with his peers on the local, regional and state level. The club even went to Atlanta for a national competition, Mr. Hubbard says. “He had a great team.”
Somehow along the way, Taylor also found time to play in his high school band and to be an Eagle Scout. He also made his family a priority.
“Taylor always had a lot of time for us. He loved doing stuff with family, whether a ski trip or going to the movies or shopping mall,” says Mr. Hubbard. “He’d go with us just as soon as he’d go with a friend.”
Taylor’s “very close group” of high school friends decided to create something that would be a lasting testament to his dynamic personality and would reflect his athleticism, academics and ideals of friendship and integrity, Mr. Hubbard says. They set up the Taylor Hubbard Memorial Scholarship Fund and asked Taylor’s family to serve as trustees. The fund will support county-wide scholarships. “Taylor was part of the entire community,” Mr. Hubbard says.
Senior executives at GW say Taylor was a very important part of the university community. “Taylor was a promising student and a beloved member of the George Washington community,” GW President Steven Knapp said at Commencement. “I speak for the entire university when I express our sympathy to Taylor’s family.”
“The entire GW community is deeply saddened by the tragic accident that claimed the life of Taylor Hubbard,” says Mark Levine, senior associate dean of students. “From what I learned that weekend, Taylor was a vibrant and involved student, and the GW community will feel his absence.”
Father Greg Shaffer, chaplain at the Newman Catholic Student Center at GW, met with the Hubbard family the morning of Saturday, May 15.
“The magnitude of sadness is beyond words,” says Rev. Shaffer. “He was a good young man with a bright future.”
Jason Lifton, president of the Student Association, says he did not know Taylor personally but encountered friends of his in the past weeks who had “the most amazing things to say about him.”
“From his friends on the Mount Vernon Campus to his colleagues in the biomedical engineering program, Taylor has affected so many other students on campus,” Mr. Lifton says. “His loss does not only affect them; it reaches all students. The Student Association passes along our condolences to Taylor’s friends and family.”
In the fall, the Student Association will be working with Taylor’s friends to plan a memorial service, Mr. Lifton says.
Mr. Hubbard asked the community to live on in his son’s memory and to strive for his ideals. “We really appreciate what the GW community has meant to him,” he says. “Taylor loved that school. He really was at the peak of his life. I’m sure he struggled with tests and projects, but he loved the challenge. He loved being with people and making new friends.”
Contributions to the Taylor Hubbard Memorial Scholarship Fund may be made care of the Community Bank of Tri-County, P.O. Box 561, Lexington Park, MD 20653.
GW encourages members of the community who are struggling with the tragedy to contact the University Counseling Center at 202-994-5300.
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