Outside in the smoking section under the stairs of Cherry Hall, one chair remained reserved this week as the memorial of a philosophy student who died last Wednesday.

Flowers, cigarettes and lighters surrounded a picture of Lafayette native Derrick Looper’s face in remembrance of the time he spent there making friends.

One of these friends, Bowling Green senior Ann Reagan, said Looper, a philosophy major, was always very generous in his friendships.

“Derrick was a great guy, he was always smiling,” she said.

Reagan said some of her fondest memories are the times spent in the smoking section outside of the ground floor of Cherry Hall with friends.

“Hanging out with him in the smoking circle, as we like to call it, talking about everything and nothing at the same time,” she said. “He just always had a smile on his face — that’s how I will always remember him — a happy-go-lucky guy.”

Henderson senior Dustin Grillon said he met Looper this semester.

“I have a class with him and I’d gotten to know him because I’m a philosophy minor and he’s a philosophy major,” Grillon said.

Grillon said Looper was a very easygoing guy.

“Derrick was one of those people who was always very upbeat,” he said. “He made it a point to talk to people, he — you know, he reached out to people in that way.”

Looper was the kind of guy that anyone could be friends with, Grillon said.

“He would often try to, if someone was having a bad day, he would try to alleviate it, or he would really feel with them,” he said.

“I don’t think he ever knew, or would’ve ever acknowledged it, but people that cared about him — he had become such a big part in a lot of our days, he was a fixture. He affected the lives of so many people in such small and important ways — it’s tangible that something is missing. He had become a part of all of our lives in some way or another and he was there for us.”

Dayton, Ohio, junior Whitney Marsh posted on Anderson and Son Funeral Homes and Memorial Park memorial page that Looper was incredibly generous, understanding, supportive, fun-loving, warm and appreciative of life.

“I am terribly sorry that the world will never see all of the great things that he was going to accomplish in his life, and I am so very sad that all of the people in his life will be deprived of his wonderful spirit,” she said. “I pray that one day we will all be able to reach a state of peace and understanding about this tragic loss. Derrick may be gone, but he will never be forgotten.”