10/25/2019
Please excuse the grammar below. Feel free to tldr.
Del, you were an amazing, dear, caring, gentle hearted, kind souled man! I’ve known you for nearly 20 years. The first memory I have of you was at the baymeadows clubhouse back in the spring of 2000 for my bid party. I remember asking one of the guys there do dads get invited to come to our parties often? weird... We then met later probably at smugglers at the beach, In all of those years to follow, our relationship has grown and can be described in many different ways. You were an advisor, a disciplinarian, a father figure, a mentor, a friend, a hero, a fsu rival, a peer, an example, ... but most of all a brother. You have impacted my life as well as the 400+ other young men of our Omega Zeta Chapter at UNF. You may have been initiated at NU Delta but your heart belongs to Omega Zeta. You were the backbone, foundation, and soul of our chapter. In life we grow from being babys, to brats, to kids, to teens, to know it alls, to undergrads, to grads, and supposedly adults. And your mission in our corner of the world was unwavering and it was to help and nurture young boys to become true gentleman. You embodied those words with such an intense passion. You did all the thankless things we took for granted. To list some: lets start with going to chapters regularly with the collegiate, giving the same advice over and over and over to new young faces, challenging college kids to being better men, monitoring academics, sending out daily birthday salutations for all of our members, their wedding announcements, as well when their families grew with baby deliveries on facebook, you came to funeral services for other fallen brothers, you called chapter presidents daily, you kept records of every brother that was initiated and kept close tabs on them to keep this chapter well connected, you organized annual weekends, events and founders day events, managed nationals, managed UNF staff, and managing the oh so many crisis this chapter loves to bring on itself and brought to your door, and so much more... and this is all because you truly cared so much. I know you felt awkward sometimes when i tried to tell you how much i appreciated what you did..... but I want to really Thank you now. Brothers will you please snap and thank brother Austin for his services that he rightfully deserves below...... (ThankYou Del) Delicious you brought a world of people into my life that I am so thankful for. Even in death ive been thrusted into multiple group texts and messages of brothers whom i dont communicate regularly. And they all want to talk and remember you dearly. My closest relationships best friends in life are the brothers whom I call and ridicule daily. Without you i wouldnt have experienced what it would be like to have a family outside of my real family. You were instrumental in making that happen. You are a master of bringing people together. Death is not fair or logical, and it’s always too soon when death comes to someone you love. We love you brother. Because you know, this wouldn’t be so hard if you didn’t really love him. Healing doesn’t mean getting over it, in fact there will never be a point of final closure, but i can say from your brothers we will do our best to make you proud as true gentleman.
