Salve Remembers Nick Kelly ’05

By: Kate Howard
Posted In: Campus News

Salve lost a student, teammate and friend Feb. 25 in Nicholas Kelly.

Kelly, who passed away unexpectedly in his sleep from as-yet-undetermined causes, was a junior Administration of Justice major from Abington, Mass., and Seahawks football cornerback for two years. He loved the Red Sox, his girlfriend Danielle Imwalle, and his pet snake called Bella, the nickname Kelly used for Danielle. He is remembered by faculty as a quiet but caring student and by his friends as a funny guy who always had a smile on his face and would want to be remembered for all the fun they had, not the sadness that is currently afflicting Salve’s campus after its devastating loss.

The night of Kelly’s death, Salve offered a memorial service and the conference room of Rodgers Recreation overflowed with over 200 friends and classmates, many in shock and all grieving for the stunning loss of a close friend. Two notebooks were available for friends to write thoughts and memories: one for Kelly’s family, and the other to be laid to rest with Kelly, a space to put the goodbyes his loved ones did not have the chance to say.

“We can’t keep asking ourselves if we could’ve changed things,” Codega told the mourners. Their sobs grew as though his words rang true, and Codega went on to quell their fears. “We can’t say, ‘What if we had done something different?’ We can’t do that to ourselves because we couldn’t have changed it… This, right here, is Nick’s greatest gift,” said Codega, holding his arms out to the masses to emphasize the importance of friendship: the friendships students had with Kelly, and the support those in attendance will have to rely on from one another.

“The members of the Administration of Justice Department share the sadness of the entire University community at the passing of Nick Kelly,” Dr. Robin Hoffmann, chair of the administration of justice department, stated in an email. “It is a tragedy to lose a person so young.”

Hoffmann supervised Kelly for a community service project he completed at the Martin Luther King Center for an ADJ course. He became close with one student he worked with, and Hoffmann remembers his reaction when he received a hand-written thank you note from the child.

“When I handed the envelope to him before class, Nick’s face lit up and revealed his pleasure,” Hoffmann said. “He was visibly moved by the experience of spending time with this boy, and I feel this episode demonstrates Nick’s caring nature.”

Dr. Michael Brady, assistant professor in the administration of justice department, had Kelly in two classes this semester.

“Nick was a quiet student, but when he had an opinion he let you know it,” Brady said. “He didn’t speak up much in class, but when he did voice an opinion, you knew it was special and straight from the heart.”

When speaking to his students, Brady felt it was important to let students know that even as their teacher, he received a lesson from Kelly’s death.

“I told my class that Nick’s death has taught us something- don’t waste a precious minute,” Brady said. “I saw the young men and women at the memorial service, and you could see it in their eyes that their vulnerability had become apparent to them.”

Kelly’s impression went beyond his close circle of friends and he had an impact on even more casual acquaintances, evidenced by the number of students in attendance at both the memorial service and the funeral mass.

“I wasn’t that close with him, but he was one of the most popular kids,” said junior Kelly Delgaudio. “We were all saying how everyone knew him because he was friends with so many different groups of people. When he died, it just brought everyone together.”

The men Kelly played football with were hit hard by his death, although Kelly quit just prior to this past season. “Nick was a great ballplayer and an even better person,” said junior Jon Restaino. “It’s real tough to pick the words that emulate Nick the most. We will all miss him as a friend and teammate, and he will be with us through the times to come… this is how we all feel,” Restaino said.

Brady reiterated that despite the very understandable pain felt by members of the Salve community, there are others that Kelly’s grieving friends should keep on their minds.

We have to remember that although as his teachers, friends and teammates, we feel grief and loss, that there are people stung by this who were much closer; his twin sister, his family, and his girlfriend,” said Brady.

By all accounts, Kelly held his friends and girlfriend near and dear to his heart.

“You could always find Nick with his closest guy friends laughing and having fun,” junior Elyse Regan said of one of the first friends she made her freshman year at Salve.

“I’m not sure if I really remember Nick without Danielle either; I guess you could kind of describe the two like Barbie and Ken, just perfect for each other in every way,” Regan said.

The wake and funeral were held Sunday and Monday in Abington, Mass., and a large number of faculty and students attended. Kelly’s mother and Jonathan Turrisi, his roommate, both spoke at the funeral service. The road to healing will certainly be rocky for the friends and family closest to Nick.

“Nick had a huge family, with tons of cousins and uncles, and they were all very sad and wondering why,” Regan said. “This is going to be really hard for all his friends to get over too; he had an extremely close group of friends, and they all miss him so much.”

The Mosaic extends our condolences to the family and friends of Nick Kelly.

Please feel free to use the Story Forum below to share your memories, feelings, and comments with one another about Nick Kelly and your recent experiences.

Erica Johnson also contributed to this story.