Whether playing soccer, heading to the gym or going out with friends, John Hoover always seemed to be on the move, and wherever he went, he had a smile on his face.
“He loved friends, loved his family and loved life,” said Carolyn Hoover, his mother. “How can you sum up a person? He was everything.”
Hoover, 20, of Derwood, died May 15 after the 2007 Toyota Corolla he was riding in left the road and struck two trees and a telephone pole at 3:15 a.m., killing him and two other passengers in the car. Hoover was pronounced dead at the hospital. The driver of the vehicle was allegedly intoxicated.
Born April 9, 1991, Hoover — who was known as Johnny by friends and family — attended Magruder High School in Gaithersburg, before coming to this university as a psychology major. Around the time he died, Carolyn Hoover said her son had just finished his last final and was excited about starting intramural wrestling and moving into a house with three friends from high school next year.
“He always wanted to go to the University of Maryland and be a University of Maryland student,” Carolyn Hoover said, noting he was interested in psychology and communications because he wanted to help others.
And it was that caring nature his friends said they will remember the most about Hoover.
“I always felt like I could go up to Johnny and he’d talk to me and ask how everything’s going,” said longtime friend and junior accounting major Girish Chaskar. “He was very trustworthy.”
Chaskar played alongside Hoover on the varsity soccer team at Magruder and said Hoover always kept up with that “little clique” of friends he formed in middle and high school through college.
Another former varsity soccer teammate, Ipiok Apandak — a junior economics major at Columbia University — said Hoover continued to keep up with him on the phone or on Facebook after he moved away and would constantly invite him over.
“He always welcomed people over to his house. He just loved to entertain,” Apandak said. “He was really goofy and always got you laughing. He liked to make people laugh.”
Friends said Hoover loved to work out and stay active, with Apandak going so far as to call him a “gym rat.” Along with varsity soccer, Hoover also ran cross country at Magruder and played intramural soccer at this university.
“He lost games a lot,” Carolyn Hoover said with a laugh. “But he worked hard and he tried his best. He loved to have fun.”
“He was just a go-to guy if you wanted to go out or do anything,” junior accounting major Julie Oxman said. “He was always on the move and always willing to do whatever.”
Carolyn Hoover said Johnny was also especially close to his younger brother Jimmy, laughing as she recalled how teachers always confused one for the other. In the end, she said, she would always remember her son’s loving nature.
“He was such a good brother and son. He saw the good in others and always tried to help other people,” she said. “He was a great kid. He was just a shining light in our lives.”
John Hoover is survived by his parents, Patrick and Carolyn Hoover, and brothers Charlie and Jimmy Hoover.
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