At 1 p.m. on Sept. 8 in Parker Chapel, a memorial service will be held for Ernest Amoh, who passed away on June 5 in a tragic drowning accident while visiting his brother.

Amoh was an international student from Takoradi, Ghana, and a rising sophomore. He was originally accepted to a university in Ghana but chose to come to Trinity to pursue his dream of becoming a civil engineer.

Joel Adablah, a junior also from Ghana, learned about Amoh when he was a part of the international student orientation team. Adablah met him over Skype the summer before he came to Trinity.

“We were friends and we hung out a number of times. We had lunch at Mabee and we were just talking about home and gossiping. It was great. He was like a brother,” Adablah said.

Amoh enjoyed attending Trinity University and adjusted well to living in a different country, so far from family and friends in Ghana.

“The whole coming to a new country, to a new school is kind of a lot to take in. He didn’t struggle through the acclimatization process. It was just really nice for him. He always used to tell me “˜man, there is a lot of different people here’ because back at home where he was from there was a lot of only Ghanaians. Over here it was colorful, everyone was from a different place,” Adablah said.

Amoh found Trinity a very interesting place to be, especially as a Ghanaian. “He loved how people were so interested that he was from Ghana. He had a really thick accent so he used to flaunt that. He loved the whole atmosphere of this place, the diversity and the fact that is was a new beginning for him to be himself and do what he wanted to do. He enjoyed that aspect a lot,” Adablah said.

When he first came to Trinity, Amoh was a reserved person, but soon began making friends and connections, according to Adablah.

“He was a cool guy to live with. He studied a lot and played FIFA all weekend long. He would always have people over and he would be jamming music and having a real fun time. It would be a great environment to be in, it worked out very nicely. I enjoyed spending time with him,” said Kendrick James, a sophomore and Amoh’s roommate and friend.

Amoh’s energy, enthusiasm and love of soccer are mentioned a great deal among his friends.

“He always seemed to be happy having fun. He was full of energy and that was just something that [was] fun and kept it enjoyable in the room so we didn’t get bored,” James said.

“He was really interested in soccer. Everything was about soccer and sports. He loved parties, he was just a really fun guy,” Adablah said.

On July 5, his funeral was held in his hometown of Takoradi, Ghana. Nanette Le Coat, associate professor of French language and literature, attended his funeral as Trinity representative.

“There was about 3,000 people there. There were several choruses. Some of the choirs came from [Ernest’s] old schools. There were students from his primary school, middle school, high school. There were friends of the family and everyone was dressed in traditional garb. There was a kind of somberness, of course- it was a very sad occasion- but there was also a joyfulness of celebrating Ernest’s life. The family was so amazingly warm and welcoming,” Le Coat said.

“He had a really infectious smile. He was happy and he made people happy. I just miss that about him, a lot of people miss that about him,” Adablah said.