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Jan Fischer remembers her son, Trevor Pierce, for his tenacity.

As a student, as an athlete and as an Eagle Scout, Pierce was unwavering in his dedication to the people and pursuits he cared about.

“He was true to his beliefs,” Fischer said. “If he put his mind to doing it, he was going to do it.”

Pierce, 18, died Oct. 13 after colliding with a Syracuse University trolley while skateboarding down Waverly Avenue. He was an SU freshman studying political philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences and a student in Renée Crown University Honors Program. He lived in Sadler Hall.

Family and friends remember Pierce for his passion, his kind and courageous spirit and his ability to bring people together.

“The minute I met him he was such a light,” said Lilianna Smith, a sophomore studying French who dated Pierce for about a month before he died. “He’s the kind of person that would go out of the way for the people he cared about.”

Smith and Pierce would often have conversations about philosophy or history while drinking coffee. He brought coffee to her dorm almost every morning.

Alleigh Lapinsky, Pierce’s former teammate on his high school cross country and track teams, remembers Pierce’s determination, she said.

“He was so set on his goals and his dreams and what he believed in,” Lapinsky said. “Once he made up his mind, it was done.”

Pierce ran both cross country and track at Conant High School in Jaffrey, New Hampshire. Fischer recalled that, at one of his meets, a teammate fell and Pierce helped them get up instead of continuing the race.

As a teammate, Pierce constantly uplifted others, said Eva Shirey, who also ran cross country and track with Pierce.

“He was always at the finish line to give you a big hug or a fist bump no matter what happened,” Shirey said. “He would always tell a few people each meet what he was expecting out of them that day.”

After learning that Pierce’s mother had been diagnosed with breast cancer last year, his teammates wore hot pink shoelaces to show support. Shirey has kept those laces on her shoes and will continue to wear them as a tribute to Pierce.

Aside from sports, Pierce loved art and fashion, Smith said. He sold jeans and T-shirts that he had painted as a side project, she said.

“He was a little artist at heart,” Smith said. “He just loved aesthetic things.”

In his time at SU, Pierce became involved with the club ultimate frisbee team. Keegan O’Neill, a junior at SUNY-ESF studying conservation biology and a team member, said Pierce was a leader among the freshmen class players.

Pierce organized socially distanced practices and enjoyed bringing friends together to play, O’Neill said.

In his short time at SU, Pierce formed close bonds with several of his peers. Dominic Chiappone, an SU freshman studying history, met Pierce during his first week at school since they both lived in Sadler Hall. They would often spend time in the lounge on Pierce’s floor with other friends.

“His ability to just bring people together is what defined who Trevor was,” he said.

Pierce also enjoyed listening to indie and soft-pop music, said Karel Wolterbeek, one of Trevor’s friends. He always enjoyed going on adventures, whether it was hiking Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire or finding obscure places to swim, Wolterbeek said.

Shannon Tremblay, Pierce and Fischer’s neighbor, said that Pierce’s time as an Eagle Scout showed his sense of character and work ethic. Pierce worked often with younger scouts at Camp Wanocksett in Dublin, New Hampshire.

“The younger scouts really connected with him,” Fischer said. “If we had a homesick scout or something, we’d have Trevor go talk to them and in an hour the kid loved camp.”

Pierce’s time as an Eagle Scout showed his sense of character and work ethic. Courtesy of Jan Fischer 

Pierce’s work with scouting also made him a strong public speaker, Fischer said. He was good with words and was never afraid to voice his opinion, Lapinsky said.

His dedication to politics and activism also stood out to his friends and family.

As supporters of former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, Pierce and Wolterbeek once attended three of Yang’s rallies in one day, Wolterbeek said. Yang has signed Pierce’s hat at least 10 times, Shirey said.

Yang called Fischer following Pierce’s death and told her about how he remembered her son, she said.

“I would’ve thought someday he would’ve done something in politics,” Fischer said.

Pierce was also passionate about journalism and interned with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript during his senior year of high school, Fischer said. He loved going to town meetings or local sporting events to gather information for stories.

Following Pierce’s death, SU students assembled a memorial to him at the intersection of Waverly and Comstock avenues, including over a dozen bouquets and pictures of Pierce spread over the sidewalk. The university placed another memorial – a plaque with his name on it – outside of Hendricks Chapel.

Fischer has found solace in seeing the SU community’s reaction to Pierce’s death, she said. Over the past week, she has received around 50 letters in the mail from SU students and families.

“I now really understand why Trevor really loved being there,” she said. “I wish he had more time to be in college.”

Published on October 22, 2020 at 12:23 am

Contact Mira: mlberenb@syr.edu