Campus Grieves Students’ Deaths

Oliver Zlonis, a sophomore at Lewis & Clark from Grant, Minnesota, took his own life on September 29, 2003. He was 19.

The campus community’s sense of loss and grief was immediate and widespread. An informal candlelight service was held the evening of his death. Later, Zlonis’ friends worked with Mark Duntley, dean of the chapel, to create a more formal remembrance gathering, which was held on October 7. Staff members in Student Life, the Counseling Center, the Health Center, and the Chaplain’s Office provided timely and compassionate support for families and students in the days and weeks following the tragedy.

“It was the disease of depression that killed him,” wrote his parents, Jeff and Jeanne, and his brother, Ed, in a thank-you letter to the campus community that was published in the student newspaper. “If we can keep Oliver’s memory alive in our hearts and gently support each other now, maybe he can rest in peace.”

Aaron Ross, a student in the M.A.T. program at Lewis & Clark’s Graduate School of Education, died October 8, 2003, at age 29. He had completed the M.A.T. requirements and was scheduled to graduate in December; instead, he was awarded the degree posthumously.

Ross earned a B.S. in outdoor recreation and land management from Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania in 1999. As an undergraduate, he was active in Lock Haven’s theatre program and appeared in several plays. Before pursuing his M.A.T. at Lewis & Clark, Ross taught elementary education in Queens, New York, for two years. He was an avid outdoor enthusiast, mountaineer, and bicyclist.

He is survived by his parents, Sally MacDonald Lippart and Charles J. Ross; a brother, Christopher A. Ross, and his family; his maternal grandfather; his paternal grandmother; and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

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