Luther College community mourns Nabby in Decorah

Decorah, Ia — Amanda Nechuta’s question lingered and offered a dash of levity in the middle of an otherwise somber prayer service Monday at Luther College.

“What would your day be like if everyone greeted you with a huge smile and a high five?” she wondered aloud to about 650 Luther students, faculty and other mourners.

Nechuta was eulogizing her late friend, Nana Kwasi “Nabby” Baffour-Awuah, 24, a gregarious senior who had been majoring in information systems and business management. His body was found on campus at about 8:03a.m. Saturday when a passerby phoned 911.

On top of wondering who could begin to replace Nabby’s smile, more sobering questions gnaw at the Luther community this week: Why and how did this student die in the wee hours of New Year’s Day?

“It’s tough not knowing,” Nechuta said after the service. “You don’t want to think — your mind starts going off in different directions.”

“The uncertainty and the questions kind of compound the grief,” agreed Mike Blair, one of the campus pastors who led Monday morning’s service of hymns and Scripture readings.

Uncertainty likely will remain in the days ahead. Decorah’s assistant police chief, David Smutzler, said that he’s waiting for results of an autopsy plus toxicology tests that could take a couple of weeks.

He did say that Nabby wasn’t wearing “sufficient cold-weather attire” when he was discovered near the baseball diamond bleachers.

I stopped by the ball diamond myself and saw a few spots of what looked like blood amid the trampled scene. Smutzler wouldn’t confirm or deny any blood, except that “samples of trace evidence on the scene” had been collected as part of the ongoing investigation.

Monday’s prayer service at the Center for Faith and Life had been hastily organized to help everybody cope just as classes resumed. Grief counseling sessions are being organized for students, and further services are pending.

I found myself Monday singing along to “How Great Thou Art” with pipe organ accompaniment. A pair of white candles burned atop pedestals, arranged on either side of a cross at the front of the auditorium.

Nabby (pronounced “knobby”), from Tema, Ghana, was the first student Nechuta met on campus when she came to work as a dorm director and assistant basketball coach; Nabby greeted her in the summer of 2008 with a big hug almost before he said a single word.

“Everybody knew who he was — that’s the tough part about it,” Nechuta said.

Nabby’s hug habit was a theme running through the teary reminiscences in both the public service and individual interviews Monday.

There was that ready smile with his head cocked to one side.

The pride he took in showing off Facebook photos and video of his two brothers in New York or other family back in Ghana.

His happy-go-lucky lack of attention to strict schedules, including start times for meetings.

How he loved to talk a big game on the basketball court – a much bigger game than he could deliver, which didn’t bother him in the least.

His ambition to work for a major accounting firm in some big city after his graduation in May from Luther.

Nabby had been among about 160 students — including athletes and 30 or so international students — who were on campus over the holiday weekend. All students remaining on campus over holiday break must register and obtain a separate key; the locks on dorms are changed in an effort to prevent unregistered students from returning to their dorm rooms.

This week about one-third of students remain off campus during Luther’s “J-term,” a period in January when internships and independent studies are common.

Of course nobody wants to start a new year this way – whether it’s a campus full of “invincible,” fresh-faced young students or any other community.

It was just a year ago that Luther alumnus and a soon-to-be minister, Ben Larson, 25, died in a collapsed building during the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti during his mission work. He was buried in Decorah.

Iowa State University endured its own tragic mystery last year when Jonathan Lacina, a 21-year-old senior, went missing Jan. 22. His body wasn’t recovered until April 14, and the state medical examiner eventually ruled hypothermia as the likely cause of death.

Nabby had friends from his many roles across campus, including a longtime job in the ticket office — working in a booth in the same Center for Faith and Life building where Monday’s service took place. Bradley Phillips, the box office manager, described his late friend and employee as “full of fire” and struggled to come up with a comparable campus shock in his 20 years at Luther.

Nabby also was resident assistant for about 46 students on the first floor of Dieseth Hall — a twin dorm tower with Miller Hall. Friend and fellow resident assistant Taylor Owens had a running debate with Nabby: Miami Heat vs. the L.A. Lakers.

“I’m a Derek Rose fan, and he’s a LeBron fan,” Owens explained.

She last saw Nabby on Dec. 16 before leaving for the holidays. They swapped boasts about how their intramural basketball team would crush all competition this semester.

Seth Miner, who oversees both Miller and Dieseth halls, phoned Nabby at 2:04 p.m. Friday. They wished each other a happy New Year, but Miner didn’t learn whether his friend had any special plans that night.

Like just about everybody else I talked to Monday at Luther, Miner was perpetually on the edge of tears as he talked. He also was dreading Tuesday night’s first dorm staff meeting sans Nabby. He lives in an apartment in Miller Hall, and his 4-year-old son, Brooks, became good friends with the high-fiving guy from Ghana. The son asked his dad why Nabby died.

“He just died,” was all that Miner could muster for now.

The little boy hung his head.

“Now who’s going to give me all the high fives?” Brooks asked.

Questions and grief dominate for now at Luther.