Second-year College student David Sloan Critchfield was friendly, caring and dedicated to his family, his fraternity and his sports teams, said his friends and family.
"When Sloan did anything, it's like he did it with his whole heart," Critchfield's mother Triss Critchfield told their hometown paper, The Portland Press Herald. "With his whole being."
Critchfield died Nov. 23 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to a statement released by the Office of the Dean of Students.He was 19.
A native of Maine, Critchfield played lacrosse at Waynflete School, where he graduated cum laude in 2003. At the University, Critchfield was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity and the club lacrosse team.
"Sloan was the kind of guy that you never saw angry," said Sigma Chi President John Lewis, a fourth-year College student. "He would light up a room with just a joke or a smile. Everyone he came into contact with was proud to know him and proud to be his friend."
In high school, Critchfield was a founding member of a community service group that organized local children to volunteer,the Herald reported. He spent summers working at Pine Island Camp as a camp counselor.
Sigma Chi will hold a University-wide memorial service Friday in Old Cabell Hall at 4:30 p.m. to honor Critchfield.
"Since his funeral services were held in Maine on Saturday, not as many people as would have liked were able to attend," Lewis said. "We want to have something here in Charlottesville for everyone whose life he touched as well as provide an opportunity for some closure for everybody."
Dean of Students Penny Rue is planning an opportunity for anyone affected by Critchfield's death to meet with her and members of the University counseling staff at 6 p.m. tomorrow in the south meeting room of Newcomb Hall.
At the University, friends of Critchfield agreed it was hard to put their friendship into words.
"If there was one word to describe Sloan, it would be awesome," second-year College student Cleo Brock-Abraham said.
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