‘This community matters’: W&M students, staff gather to remember recent losses
Dozens of William & Mary students, faculty and staff stood in silence, each holding a lit candle in their hands.
Together, they gathered in the courtyard of the Wren Building on Wednesday evening to comfort each other and to reflect on this semester’s loss of two students, both of whom died close to a month of each other.
“Tonight, as we share the light of our many candles, we illuminate this beautiful courtyard,” Ginger Ambler, the school’s vice president of student affairs, said at the candlelit gathering. “The warmth of that shared light also reminds us powerfully that we are not alone. In joy or in sorrow, community matters. This community matters. You being here tonight matters.”
Troy A. Cullen, a junior from Warren, New Jersey, was the most recent loss. A history major, he was known as an exemplary student and talented musician. He studied Chinese, was president of the university’s Fencing Club and had plans to enter a career within the national security and public service sector.
Police found Cullen’s body in the woods on campus overnight Dec. 9. Investigators did not give a cause of death but do not suspect foul play.
Cullen’s death came just about a month after Alexander Gil had a “medical emergency” in his dorm and died. A freshman from Arlington, Gil had only just recently walked through the Wren Building for the first time during the university’s opening convocation in September. Described as an “extremely friendly person,” he was on his way to developing a passion for international relations and was involved in the Chess Club at W&M.
“We hold in our hearts Alex Gil and Troy Cullen, friends and colleagues at UVA and all of our loved ones lost this year,” W&M President Katherine Rowe said during the gathering. “We’re here for those who have felt that loss most intensely.”
Other speakers shared poems to help heal others. Phaedra McNorton, a lecturer in the music and theatre department, sang a moving a capella rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” The performance brought some W&M students to tears.
“As a community, we have gathered often this semester in moments of celebration and in times of loss,” Ambler said. “We’ve reached out our hands to one another and shared words of encouragement and care. That is the spirit in which we gather this evening.”
Speakers suggested that the gathering was one of healing and of hope, and they encouraged students to reach out to their fellow classmates. The heartfelt evening concluded with the Wren bell ringing, echoing throughout the courtyard.
Dominic Catacora, 757-798-9833, dominic.catacora@virginiamedia.com
