Tula Goenka, a television, radio and film professor, always knew he would be asked to speak about one of his talented students.

He never expected it to be Friday afternoon at Nick Del Pozo’s memorial service in Hendricks Chapel.

“I just always imagined it would be after he won an Oscar or a Tony,” Goenka said.

Del Pozo, a senior television radio and film major, died Sept. 15 after falling from a cliff in Pratt’s Falls park, about 30 minutes from campus.

Many others spoke about Del Pozo’s positive attributes, calling him loyal and generous. Several groups of which he was a part performed during the service.

Luci Treffiletti read a eulogy prepared by her daughter, Tara Treffiletti, a senior in the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, who is studying in Hong Kong.

‘Nick was never embarrassed at showing his affection, ‘ Treffiletti said. ‘Nick tried to experience everything life had to offer.”

Lyrics from ‘What I Did for Love,’ a song from the musical “A Chorus Line,” resounded Friday afternoon through Hendricks Chapel as friends and family gathered to remember Syracuse University student Nick Del Pozo.

‘Gone, love is never gone. As we travel on, love’s what we’ll remember,” the artist sang.

Past and present members of The First Year Players later performed the song at the service.

Several people read from poems or prepared statements of others who couldn’t speak for themselves or weren’t available.

Ashwini Srikantiah, a senior televison radio and film major, read a Walt Whitman poem “Song of Myself,” and a prepared statement about Del Pozo from public communications professor Patricia Longstaff.

‘Nick, we will watch for you as we contemplate the reward of being true to ourselves, while loving others,’ Srikantiah read.

The a cappella group GrooveStand sang ‘Angels,” written by Robbie Williams, and DanceWorks performed to a piece choreographed by Betsy Sherwood, a junior visual and performing arts major, and set to Celine Dion’s ‘Fly.”

Each group that performed and each person who spoke left a single pink rose on the alter.

Stacey Moreau, a senior dual major in television radio and film and marketing, said the memorial allowed students an opportunity to reflect on Delpozo’s life.

“It was great to see people able to laugh and cry,” Moreau said.

Michael Caldwell, an SU alumni who graduated in the spring with a degree in telivision radio and film, was a close friend of Delpozo and said he was one a kind.

‘Nick you are an artist in the truest sense,” he said. “But your words are your paint.”

Published on September 22, 2002 at 12:00 pm