'Being kind became mundane to him': Wheaton Warrenville grad who died in fall being remembered
Scores of friends and family members Sunday will continue celebrating the life of a 2019 Wheaton Warrenville South High School graduate and star athlete who died in a fall while at college.
Declin Ermer has been remembered for his personality and his lifesaving gifts. He died earlier this month after falling from a deck onto a sidewalk below in late October at the University of Montana.
"It could happen to anybody, but you always think it will be somebody else," said Eric Ermer, his father.
His death has hit family and friends hard. Many have reached out to his family to share stories, including on a CaringBridge Web page that was set up for Declin.
"There's people across the country that have told us stories about his kindness we didn't know about," said his mother, Laura Townsend.
Ermer was a star athlete at Wheaton Warrenville South, where he played volleyball, soccer and basketball.
"He had so many people he touched in all three sports," said Mike Healy, athletic director at Wheaton Warrenville South. "He was one of those great kids."
Friends said he was a great teammate. One of his most memorable basketball games was against rival Wheaton North, where he stood his ground defensively and took a charge three times, doing the dirty work to help his team win.
That unselfish quality will be part of his legacy, friends and family said, and it started at an early age. Eric Ermer wrote in a post how Declin, in a charity basketball game while Declin was in fifth grade, passed a ball to a lesser-skilled teammate to let him score when Declin could have gone for the easy score himself.
"The kindness that he showed at such a young age continued, and not until this tragedy did we even know about a lot of his acts of kindness that have been shared in text, calls, and on this site," his father wrote. "Because being kind became mundane to him and just what he did. To me that is his Miracle of the Mundane. The Miracle is the simple everyday acts that were so natural to my youngest son."
An honor walk was held Nov. 9 at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove, and the Sigma Chi fraternity held a celebration of life Nov. 11 in Missoula, Montana.
Ermer and his family chose to donate his organs.
"In the end, with tissues and everything, there were seven people whose lives were saved or benefitted," his father said.
"He's gonna be there for eternity. He's my angel. He's gonna live on," his mother said.
More than 500 people who knew Ermer from Wheaton Warrenville South are expected at his memorial service Sunday afternoon.