By Theobald Rousset
For The Diamondback

The University of Maryland held its first annual memorial Thursday for community members who died between January 2020 and April 2021.

The service, which was live streamed, showed a variety of religious leaders, university administrators and community participants who gathered to commemorate the students, faculty and staff who have died through music, uplifting messages and prayers.

The service opened up with soft music — smooth jazz played from a saxophone. Imam Tarif Shraim, a Muslim chaplain of about 16 years, provided the welcome for the service.

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Shraim said names of community members would be read in order to honor them but also to remind attendees “these individuals are not statistics.”

“They were sons and daughters, they were wives and husbands, as well as mothers and fathers,” Shraim said. “They were human beings whose bodies succumb to death but whose souls live on, eternally perfuming our spirits with their beautiful memories.”

Shraim emphasized he wanted to unite the community in his speech, he said in an interview with The Diamondback just before the Thursday service.

Community “makes the interactions and also the coming together for services,” such as the one held Thursday, “much more meaningful and authentic,” Shraim said.

University President Darryll Pines also spoke during the memorial. Pines said the past year has been challenging for all, but even more so for those who lost loved ones.

“While we may mourn apart, we also join together to lean on one another through this shared experience,” Pines said. “Your loved one will always be part of our family. And we hope that Maryland will always be part of yours.”

Pines emphasized those lost will always be a part of the Terrapin family.

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Lei Danielle Escobal, a freshman sociology and journalism major at this university, said that despite the hardships of the past year, there is still good yet to come. And those who have passed will always be remembered, Escobal said.

“They are never forgotten and move with us,” Escobal said. “We will take them around and show them the world.”

A candle was lit to symbolize the impact of the community members who died on the rest of the world as Rabbi Eli Backman began to speak.

Several university officials, including Student Affairs Vice President Patty Perillo, interim provost Ann Wylie and vice president and chief administrative officer Carlo Colella read the names of community members who were being remembered.

As they read, a student placed a flower on the altar.

By the time the memorial was over, there were 48 red, yellow and white flowers brought to the altar.

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Akash Jani, a senior biological sciences major
Karim Kambo, Jr., a senior community health major
Jude Maloney, a junior information science major
Stacy Todd Price, a senior linguistics major
Trevor Quinn, a senior aerospace engineering major
Thomas Savransky, a senior finance major
Robert Richard Coleman, a faculty member in the communications department
Jonathan England, a faculty member in the African American studies department
Miguel Gonzalez-Marcos, a faculty member in the public policy school
Anthony C. Janetos, a faculty member in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Michael H. Long, a faculty member in the languages, literatures and cultures school
Linda Schmidt, a faculty member in the mechanical engineering department
Douglas Young, a faculty member in the Division of Research
Avram Bar-Cohen, an emeritus faculty in the engineering school
Sidney Brower, an emeritus faculty in the architecture, planning and preservation school
George Dieter, an emeritus faculty in the engineering school
David Driskell, an emeritus faculty in the arts and humanities college
Karl F.G. Du Puy, an emeritus faculty in the architecture, planning and preservation school
David Falk, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Arnold Glick, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Martin Otto Heisler, an emeritus faculty in the behavioral and social sciences college
John Hill, an emeritus faculty in the architecture, planning and preservation school
James Huheey, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Katherine McAdams, an emeritus faculty in the journalism college
Thomas McIlrath, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Jack Minker, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Stanley Jack O’Dell, an emeritus faculty in the arts and humanities college
Joszef Pacholczy, an emeritus faculty in the arts and humanities college
Cleveland Page, an emeritus faculty in the arts and humanities college
Robert Park, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Bernard Frank Schlesinger, an emeritus faculty in the architecture, planning and preservation school
J. Benedict Warren, an emeritus faculty in the arts and humanities college
Thomas Wilkerson, an emeritus faculty in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Sandra S. Jackson, a staff member in the arts and humanities college
Douglas J. Adams, a staff member in the engineering school
Solomon Bangura, a staff member in Dining Services
Lutgarda Barnachea, a staff member in the University Libraries
Joshy P. Choorakuzhy, a staff member in the University Libraries
David Dale Cosner, Sr., a staff member in Facilities Management
Wayne Anthony Del Pino, a staff member in Facilities Management
Eric S. DuBois, a staff member in Facilities Management
Walter Gbanka Koroma, a staff member in the Department of Transportation Services
Renee Denise McDuffie, a staff member in the arts and humanities college
Aaron “Rin” McGrew, a staff member in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Nyumburu Cultural Center
David Reiff, Jr., a staff member in the agriculture and natural resources college
Arlene E. Schenk, a staff member in the computer, mathematical and natural sciences college
Luckmann Jean Simon, a staff member in Dining Services
Mark Allen Thornton, a staff member in the engineering school

Senior staff writer Clara Longo de Freitas contributed to this report.