When he learned that a fire had badly burned his son in a college dormitory on the other side of the country, Andy Grooms drove 90 miles from his home in Roswell, N.M., to an airport in Las Vegas.
There he rented a private jet.
But his son, Stephen Andrew Grooms, died in a Winston-Salem hospital hours before family members could see him. As the family arrived on the campus of Catawba College Sunday night, hundreds of students and faculty members filed into the beige-brick chapel for a service in Andrew’s name.
For a man whose eldest son had just died and who hadn’t slept in 30 hours, Andy Grooms appeared incredibly composed after the service, as students hugged and cried in the cold outside the chapel.
“We regret sorely what happened,” he said as family members waited in a car beside him. “We still don’t understand... I really just appreciate everyone turning out for this.”
Andrew Grooms had previously attended the University of North Carolina at Charlotte before transferring to Catawba, his father said. He had made friends with several members of Catawba’s lacrosse team.
He was planning a fifth trip to Europe, one he will never make, his father said.
The sophomore business major also left behind mother Eileen and a 16-year-old brother, Brian.
“He was just a straight-up guy,” said Dr. Pat Whitley, a former advisor to Grooms. “I remember him doing papers he didn’t even have to do...He was very mature, very level-headed.”
On the weekend before homecoming, conversation on Catawba’s campus turned suddenly somber.
In Omwake-Dearborn Chapel, Dr. Ken Clapp, chaplain and senior vice president of the college, planned to give an All Saint’s Day service in memory of those who lost their lives in last month’s terrorist attacks.
He did that — but also spoke of Grooms, a student he met over dinner who had explained why he had chosen Catawba.
“Today has not been what we expected, and it’s certainly not what we wanted,” Clapp told the audience in the large tan-bricked building with grand arches.
As many students cried and dabbed eyes, Clapp invited Grooms’ family members to light a candle in memory of Andrew
“We gather in the midst of our loss, again not being able to understand. But again...we gather to give thanks. And we can do that with the promises held in the Holy Scripture.”
Counselors and faculty on campus made themselves available Sunday and today for students, and college officials gave students the option of not attending classes today.
The college canceled many of its homecoming activities, including a fall festival planned for Sunday.
Tonight at 9:30, students are planning a candlelight vigil by the Foil House in memory of Grooms.
No one spoke a word as the pipe organ boomed from the balcony and students poured out of the chapel Sunday night.
Contact Brad A. Hodges at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com
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