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Campus remembers fallen soldier

Posted on August 28, 2009 by Staff

By Beth Mechum
Staff Writer

Members of the UNC community are still reeling from the death of Army Pfc. Morris Walker, a 2008 graduate who died Aug. 18 in Afghanistan. Walker — “Mo” to all who knew and loved him — died of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.

Walker, 23, was deployed in April after enlisting in the Army in August 2008. He was based at Fort Richardson in Alaska. He is the first alumnus of UNC to die in the war in Afghanistan.

He was a well-known member of the campus community, especially known for his affinity for hanging out at the Library nightclub, his keen sense of brotherhood with fellow members of Zeta Beta Tau fraternity and, most particularly, his ability to be comfortable and have fun in any situation, which he encouraged others around him to do as well.

Ben Packer, a rabbi, hosts Friday night dinners in his home that Walker would often attend.

“I would say that I’ve never seen anyone who was more determined to ensure that everyone around him was happy and having a good time,” Packer said. “He cared intensely for the enjoyment of others, and their enjoyment was a great source of happiness for him. He will be sorely missed in our house as well as to everyone that knew him.”

Walker was born in Raleigh, but raised in Fayetteville. He attended the Fayetteville Academy before coming to UNC.

ZBT brother and friend Sam Rosenthal has been trying to collect stories from people about Walker, but said in an email that it’s hard to get people to go on the record with “Mo stories,” because they all involve some sort of craziness.

“A minute with him was memorable,” Rosenthal said.

ZBT brother Michael Chasin said in an email that one of the things he remembers most about Walker is how everyone seemed to know who he was.

“He was truly an amazing person that was always having fun and getting others involved,” Chasin said. “The Chapel Hill campus will have to fill a very large hole in their social life, because Mo was the one degree of separation that held this campus together as a whole.”

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