A time of remembrance for Green Run students killed in crash

VIRGINIA BEACH

Shortly before the three Green Run High School seniors died in a crash near school on Friday, Virginia Beach Technical and Career Education Center instructor Bob Shanks had stopped by the masonry class and tried to lay brick.

Adam Sherman, a student he had met a year earlier, said the layman's effort rated a D-minus.

"I thought it was at least a C," said Shanks, who teaches electricity.

"It should have been an E," said Charlie McDaniel, a masonry instructor.

That was one of several anecdotes at a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening at Green Run High School. It drew more than 100 family members, students, faculty and local residents.

Nearly a week ago, Sherman, 17, was riding in the back seat of a Volkswagen when the driver, Matthew Kirkbride, 18, lost control on Salem Road and the car was struck by a van. Also killed in the crash was Joseph "JoJo" Jenkins, 17.

The teens were always together, by many accounts. They were friends who looked out for one another.

They worked as a team on a Habitat for Humanity home in Norfolk and on two churches.

Shanks said he always saw them with a bag of Wendy's fast food. They would offer Shanks one french fry. When Shanks would decline, they would offer him two.

"I'm going to miss those french fries," he said.

That Friday, Shanks also had given information to Jenkins about programs at Tidewater Community College.

Jenkins had told his instructor he wanted to go to college.

Jenkins was the last of the three teens interred in a solemn ceremony Wednesday afternoon. At the funeral, the Rev. William Campbell read a letter from Jenkins' grandparents, who remembered how he mowed acres of grass during summers at their home in Kansas, and how he asked, "What else can I do?"

Campbell recalled how Jenkins always held out his hand to shake as a child and his freckles, which reminded him of actor Van Johnson. "I've never seen so many freckles before," Campbell said.

Back at Green Run, teachers said the three teens left an indelible impression on them and even taught them some lessons.

In Jennifer Eason's history class, Kirkbride was the student who seemingly knew everything.

He was a quiet leader and ardent storyteller who somehow would relate the start of World War II to occurrences in his life.

When the stories dragged on, she said, Kirkbride would say, "blase blah" and continue.

Eason could not tell whether he ever studied for a history exam. But to her, Kirkbride was a wise man with an old soul. He called her "Mrs. E." She called him "Mr. Kirkbride."

"He was a gift," she said.

In 180 class sessions, Matt Fike, another history teacher, said he had never heard a negative word from Sherman. The student was quiet but would speak up on historical and political topics.

Last year, Fike recalled summoning Sherman to his desk and complimenting some of the ideas he had raised in class. The teacher said he was proud. It was only at his funeral Tuesday that Fike learned that history was Sherman's favorite subject and that they shared interests in music.

"I wish I would have known," Fike said. "We would have had something else to talk about besides history."

At the vigil's end, people hugged one another and then melted away into the night.

 Duane Bourne, (757) 222-5150, duane.bourne@pilotonline.com