Growing up, Nick Linvill enjoyed traveling to different places and was considered by friends and family to be an eclectic person.
He was a 4-H exchange student during high school and went to places such as Japan, Mexico City and Poland. He became fluent in Spanish and tested out of several Spanish classes at Ball State University. His mom, Kathy, said he also was able to speak and write Japanese well enough to communicate with native speakers.
Nick Linvill enjoyed Japanese items such as anime books. His favorite colors were black and green, he loved playing video games and "Magic" game cards, his mom said. He enjoyed baking, reading mystery books, playing his Xbox 360 and watching fireworks, his mom said.
Her son was on the speech and debate team, swam for 10 years and played the saxophone and piano throughout high school, she said.
"He had all A's and B's and loved Ball State," Kathy Linvill said. "He couldn't wait to get back."
However, the 21-year-old telecommunications student was not able to return. On Aug. 1, Nick Linvill died from injuries sustained in a car wreck.
Kathy Linvill said her son was with a friend about one mile from his house. They were talking about his card game, and his friend was not paying attention to the road when they ran a stop sign, she said. The car got t-boned and Nick Linvill was killed instantly.
She said one thing she remembered most about her son was he always had a book in his hand and loved to read. She said he would read at least one book a day and could read a 500-page book in four hours.
"He read the first Harry Potter book 13 times," she said. "He loved to read a book more than once."
Besides reading, she said her son also loved politics.
He met Hillary and Bill Clinton when they were in town, and he met Senator Evan Bayh, she said. One thing she remembers most about him was when he was 5 years old, poll workers let him vote on a sample ballot while she voted in an election, she said.
"I asked him who he voted for and he said George Bush, Bill Clinton and Ross Perot," Kathy Linvill said. "I asked why he voted for three people, and he said 'that way I know I could pick the winner.'"
His mom said her son chose Ball State because he loved David Letterman and learned the university had an "outstanding communications department."
TCOM Chairman Joseph Misiewicz said when he learned of Nick Linvill's death he wrote a letter to the family and explained how he was a good student and would stick around after his classes to ask professors questions. He said he could relate to what Nick Linvill's parents were feeling because he lost his daughter six years ago.
"I can't claim to know what they're going through because everyone goes through it [a loss] differently, but I have a sense," Misiewicz said.
During Linvill's time at Ball State, he was a disc jockey for WCRD and co-hosted a radio slot in the evening.
WCRD General Manager Heather Trojack said the radio station would do a memorial slot every now and then by playing songs Nick Linvill enjoyed and speaking to family and friends. The first slot would be from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday with Nick Linvill's former co-host, George Umbarger.
"When we first met him he was quiet," Trojack said, "but once we got to know him he was friendly and loved talking about music. He had a zeal to learn how things worked throughout the station."
Kathy Linvill said although her son enjoyed heavy metal and hard rock music the best, it was his time at WCRD that opened his eyes to other genres such as the 1980s and big band music.
Although her son is no longer with them physically, Kathy Linvill said she, her husband and friends and family still felt as if he was present spiritually.
When his dad went to the doctor soon after the accident, she said, his weight registered 20 pounds lighter than what it should have been and instead registered her son's weight. She said when her husband came home and weighed himself again a little later it still registered 20 pounds lighter, but when he tried again a third time it was back to normal.
She said one time her husband stepped off a boat and as he started to walk across the sand there was a photograph of their son on the sand in front of him. She said Nick Linvill's friends at Ball State also told her of a time when they went to him at the cemetery and noticed a black butterfly on his tombstone.
"In Japan a black butterfly means it'll carry your soul to heaven," Kathy Linvill said.
She said friends and family have had various strange things happen since Nick Linvill died and people have called to tell her about them.
"Each thing was pertinent to that individual, and our preacher said that sometimes happens a lot [shortly] after a person's death," she said. "[It's] that person trying to say they're OK. It made us feel comforted that he's still around and in good humor."
FacebookPeople who are interested in leaving comments or memorializing anything about Nick Linvill's life can visit the Facebook group called "RIP Nick Linvill." The group was created by Linvill's friends for this purpose. The group also has links to Linvill's obituary and the story that first reported his death.
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