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| Chris and Graham Naylor look on as Psychology student Rosie Pomroy talks about her friend Natalie. |
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| Jan Lock by the memorial to her husband, Larry Trask, outside Pevensey II. |
Ceremonies took place on campus last week to celebrate the lives of two Sussex people.
Family, friends and academics who knew undergraduate Natalie Naylor gathered outside Essex House on 29 April to unveil a bench and memorial tree in her honour. Natalie, a second-year student, died from meningitis in January last year.
Natalie's father Graham told the crowd, who included Natalie's teammates from the women's rugby club, how happy she had been at Sussex and how pleased he was at this 'living memorial' to his daughter.
Ayode Duroshola talked about how Natalie was the very first person he had met when he first arrived on campus and how Natalie's mum had practically pushed her towards him to encourage her to meet people, little knowing that Ayode and Natalie would end up going out together. "This bench and tree symbolise for me a sunny day, which is appropriate," remarked Ayode, "because for me Natalie was like the sun."
Later the same day, colleagues of linguistics professor Larry Trask gathered to see his wife Jan unveil a maple tree in his memory outside Pevensey II. The species was especially chosen because maples are common throughout Larry's native New York state.
"Larry was not only a brilliant academic and expert in his field but also enormous fun too," said Jan. "It's good that people can see this tree and remember him, even if to them Larry was just the chap who wrote all those books about punctuation."