Family, friends honor late student Stephen Patrizio

Above all else, Stephen Patrizio was a good friend.

“I just always remember how excited he was to see me, or any of his good friends. It made you feel so special,” said David “DJ” Gress, a junior at Penn State and friend of Patrizio. Gress had known Patrizio since the two went to Bishop Shanahan High School, in Downingtown, Pennsylvania, together.

Gress was one of the last to see Patrizio before he suddenly passed away on July 5. The two had gone to visit a friend at the University of Delaware on the Fourth of July.

Around 5 a.m., Newark, Delaware Police responded to a call on East Park Place near the University of Delaware. After laughing about an awkward silence, Patrizio had fallen backwards in his chair, off of the back deck he and his friends were sitting on, and struck his head. Emergency personnel rushed Patrizio to the Christiana Emergency Room, where he was later pronounced deceased, according to a statement from Newark Police. Stephen was 20 years old.

In the week following his funeral, Gress and other childhood friends visited all of Patrizio’s favorite restaurants, including Dairy Queen, Buffalo Wild Wings and a local creamery where Patrizio, from Exton, Pennsylvania, worked. At the creamery, Gress saw a rainbow.

“I know it sounds weird, but there was something that said that [that rainbow] was either from him, or some sort of sign,” Gress said.

For Janet Patrizio, Stephen’s mother, her sign came years earlier. As a young boy, Stephen had been playing inside when he saw his younger sister, Abby, fall down outside in their yard. Stephen ran out immediately to help.

“Stephen was an amazing boy. He just wanted everyone to be happy, he never put himself first,” Janet said. “That’s my strongest memory of him.”

According to Janet, family was important to him, as were family traditions — whether it be picking out and cutting down the tree every Christmas, or feasting on a cheeseburger every Saturday night, or fishing with his dad while visiting family in Florida every summer.

Caity Patrizio, 23, Stephen’s older sister, fondly recalled the drive to Florida every summer, remembering how her and Stephen would fight over who got the best seat in the car — but also getting to know each other better during the 16-hour car rides.

Somehow, Caity said, Stephen was able to make everyone smile just with the way he talked.

“He would say the same things that we would say, but he would say it a different way — he would say it his own way,” Caity said. “He could never not put a smile on someone’s face.”

When Stephen went to Pitt, he brought his contagious smile with him.

When Brad Hartshorne first met Patrizio during their freshman year at Pitt, the two “hit it off immediately.”

Hartshorne had been having a hard time at Pitt the first week of freshman year — Stephen was his first real friend.

“I was going through a rough patch. One night, we were going out, and he really stuck his neck out for me. He invited me,” Hartshorne, a junior accounting and economics major, said.

From then on, the two attended football and basketball games together, studied for finals together and ate meals at Market together. They lived together the following year and had planned to live together this year.

“He was the textbook definition of what a friend should be,” Hartshorne said. “I wish I could hang out with him one more time. I’d thank him for being a good friend.”

Fulfilling that definition, Mack Kelly, a junior mechanical engineering major at Pitt, said Patrizio was always there for anyone. No matter how close he was with them, he kept a positive attitude about everything, never took anything too seriously and had the “greatest laugh.”

Kelly, a friend of Patrizio’s from high school, recalled one bus ride back to Pittsburgh together when she was anxious about something. While she was panicking, Patrizio worked to calm her down.

“He took everything with stride,” Kelly said. “He wasn’t ever worried or upset about anything.”

In addition to his caring and supportive nature, Ivy Hammond, a junior psychology major and friend of Patrizio’s since high school, remembers Patrizio for his humility.

“We started talking about how great Steve was, telling him how much we appreciated him, and he didn’t know what to do. He was just like ‘I’m going to bed now,’” Hammond said. “Then later he was like, ‘I really love you guys.’”

When Hammond was diagnosed with a chronic illness her senior year of high school, Patrizio visited her frequently in the hospital — often bringing other friends with him. Because of this, Hammond said it made sense for Patrizio, a pre-med student, to go into the medical field.

“He always wanted to heal. He didn’t want to harm anyone. He wanted something more out of his life than just a job,” Hammond said.

Gress saw a similar attitude in his friend, which never changed over the years.

“The things that made him happy were making everyone else happy,” Gress said. “He was kind of like a caretaker, but not in an anxiety-driven way. He just wanted the best for everyone.”