Campus mourns death of
junior student Chris Green

   Anyone that knew Chris Green will tell you the same things, "he was always happy, nothing ever got him down." And just about every story about Chris will bring a smile to anyone that knew him because the stories that we know all display who Chris was, an extraordinarily selfless, giving individual.

   Christian Alexander Green was currently enrolled as a junior here at St. Olaf. In April of last year, Chris began a battle with cancer that would force him out of school, not only in April, but again in October, and eventually take his life on January 29th of this year. Chris was involved in everything he could here on campus, he held positions at the ACC, was technical director of KSTO, had participated in Viking choir, and was a Junior Counselor in Kittlesby hall.

Through these activities Chris touched the lives of many of us, he had an incredible impact on everyone around him.Chris's nickname, "Gadget" sums it all up. Probably the best gadget story that I've heard so far was the one about the voice activated message system that Chris had rigged to his locker when he was in high school. Chris's dorm room was always a mess with various projects (i.e. a lightning ball made with a lightbulb), diversions from his studies. Chris was always building something. Ryun Bibro said, "Everytime I look at the huge clock in KSTO, I just think, Chris built that."

   Chris's father, while delivering the reflection at Chris's funeral, pulled out a gadget made with two pill bottles and some wiring. It seems that during the summer, Chris's girlfriend Anne-Marie was living with the Green family. She became rather ill and had to have her tonsils removed. When she returned from the hospital, Chris had rigged these pieces together so that if Anne-Marie would need him during the night, she could press a button in one of the bottles, that would set off an alarm and turn on a light in Chris's room, so that he could be there for her right away.

   In just a few weeks, Chris had a huge impact on his corridor of first year students. Things like, "he always had that smile on his face," and,

"he was just so relaxed and so understanding about everything," keep coming to mind. His corridor will continue to regale us with stories of staying up late at night in Chris and Tom's (Larsen) room while Chris thought of pranks. It was never Chris suggesting the pranks though, it was always, "Well, you better not try anything like this..."

   His father said, "I believe that Chris was happier bringing joy to those around him than he was doing things for himself." That rings out with pure truth for those of us that knew him. Elizabeth Hallerberg recalled a time when she lost a paper that was due the following day. It was late already and she didn't want to have to write it all over again. So Chris found it on the disc for her, but something had changed all of the text. So Chris re-typed the paper for her, and gave it to her the next morning.

   In Chris's twenty years he touched more lives than most of us can hope to touch in a life three times as long. Chris will always have a presence in the lives of those who knew him, whether we remember his smile, his gadgets, or the way I do. Chris was the kind of friend that we all want, the kind of friend that we all need, that's the way I'll always think of him.

The above article was taken from the Feb. 21 1997 issue of the Manitou Messenger, the student-run newspaper of St. Olaf College.