Let me tell you about a student

Her name was Michele Dufault, and she was my student in her first physics class, which was also my first year teaching (though I don't think that I admitted that at the time :) ).

Michele was brilliant - quick, accurate, intuitive, tenacious: everything you'd want in a student.  She was also everything you'd want in a person - generous, kind, happy: a treasure to know.

She went on to Yale (no surprise), where she was a physics and astronomy major (no surprise) who helped her classmates (no surprise) academically and just as a friend.  She was loved by everyone she knew (no surprise), played a mean sax (no surprise) in the Yale Precision Marching Band (a name she undoubtedly got a giggle from, and relished the fun), and was working on a NASA Drop team (no surprise) at 2:30 in the morning (no surprise) when an inconceivable tragedy happened.  It's no surprise that none of us that knew her will ever forget Michele.

We are the poorer for having lost Michele.