Bouquets, colored Post-its and printed photos adorned an altar commemorating Long Beach State industrial design student Spencer Timms on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
Classmates, friends and professors walked up to the podium to comment and reflect on memories of Timms.
The Department of Design honored Timms, who died from a stabbing during an off-campus altercation on Oct. 4, with a memorial service at the Duncan Anderson Gallery, where nearly 50 faculty and students gathered to remember the 22-year-old.
Many in attendance said he was a quiet, hardworking and focused student.
Classmate Matthew Veyette said he could tell Timms had a lot of professionalism and passion for what he did.
“He really did care about giving back and about not taking things for granted. Even the smallest gestures he didn’t take for granted,” Veyette said. “He was one of us; he was one of the designers.”
Former classmate and friend Adrian Garcia took design classes with Timms and checked in with him regularly. They would discuss ideas for projects, and Timms would crack jokes and share memes.
“He would design so long that he sometimes didn’t sleep a lot,” Garcia said. “He had grit.”
Garcia said he was into cats, music artists such as Computer Data and card games.
Many classmates and friends appreciated Timms’ humor and witty comments.
Classmate Xina Weicks said as time progressed, she got to know the funnier side of Timms.
“He just comes up with the funniest jokes,” classmate Xina Weicks said at the memorial. “I feel like I could be myself around Spencer.”
Timms would hang out with students from the junior and senior industrial design cohort off campus.
“I’m so glad he got to know our whole cohort, and I’m glad we got to know that side of him outside of school … I hope he knows that he was really loved,” Weicks said.
One student recalled bonding with Timms over their love for cars.
“This weird thing with design students that love cars is that you instantly can sort of get a gist of who they are by what they drive, and he had a sick car,” Aidan Forsberg said at the memorial. “He had a ‘90s Honda, a CRX.”
Timms transferred from Saddleback College last fall and was preparing to apply to the competitive portfolio review process in the Department of Design.
After industrial design students finish their lower-division classes, they must submit a portfolio review to enter junior and senior studio courses to complete their bachelor of science degree.
Garcia noted that Timms was interested in transportation design. One of his designs from a previous class, a helmet, was inspired by Volkswagen.
The helmet was later featured in the department’s student display.
College of the Arts Dean Royce Smith said the university will honor Timms with a posthumous degree at next spring’s commencement.
“The playfulness, the energy, the sense of risk-taking, all of that, I remember seeing in Spencer,” Smith said at the memorial. “We always knew that Spencer had something to say, or that something was cooking in that brilliant mind of his.”
For some faculty members, Timms’ recent passing is reminiscent of a past tragedy. In 2015, Nohemi Gonzalez, a senior industrial design student, was killed in a terrorist attack while in Paris.
Design department chair Debra Satterfield said the faculty at the department have experienced repeated tragedies with students that will never get easier, but they will never forget.
“It’s like reliving what we have lived in the past with other students [who] died, but the pain was the same. The pain was still strong; it moves you,” Matias Ocana, lecturer of industrial design, said at the memorial. “He will be missed.”
Ocana had Timms as a student for two semesters.
“[He] was an excellent student. I mean, his dedication, his work ethic, were something to admire,” Ocana said.
Ocana said Timms had a very quiet personality and was respectful, dedicated and engaged with the material.
Students from Timms’ Design 254 class, which focuses on toy design manufacturing, will assist in completing Timms’ final project, a cat toy he started. His love for cats inspired the project.
“He was excelling. He really, really was putting together an amazing job,” Ocana said.
Ocana said it may take time to retrieve Timms’ files and the project will likely be completed toward the end of the semester.
Garcia said students have discussed acquiring a remembrance plaque for Timms and taking it to the junior and senior studio. After they graduate, the plaque would be given to his parents.
Garcia made a Dia de los Muertos altar for Timms in his studio.
“I know some people, especially students here, sometimes it’ll be their first time [grieving] where they don’t know how to process their emotions,” Garcia said. “It’s the time to be vulnerable, to be leaning on each other. It’s not time to be strong right now.”
Garcia said the studio has become a safe space for design students who knew Timms, where they can open up to each other while working on projects or between classes.
“The best gift that we can give to our friend now that he’s gone is to admit that our hearts are breaking,” Garcia said at the memorial. “I think it would go better for us if we just lean on each other and just let our hearts break together.”
A second memorial service for Timms was to have taken place on Wednesday, Oct. 15, at the Duncan Anderson Gallery in the Department of Design.
Annette Quijada contributed to this story.