Yale student was ‘friend to all’

Deepa Bharath

If the number of people who turn out at a memorial service says

something about the deceased, Sean Fenton’s memorial service at

Corona del Mar High School on Saturday afternoon spoke volumes about

a life nipped off just as it was about to blossom.

The more than 200 people, who attended the service for the

20-year-old computer science major at Yale University killed in a

tragic car accident on Jan. 17, shared more than an ordinary bond

with Fenton.

Sure, they were either neighbors or family friends or played

football together or went to high school together. Sure, they admired

the giant of a boy and man who was one of the school’s star athletes

and a math whiz.

But among them was also the sixth-grade teacher who called Fenton

“Daddy Warbucks” because he was a “male diva -- a star on stage as he

was in life.”

Among the large group of mourners was a Corona del Mar High dad

whose son Fenton had rescued from bullies. There was a high school

sweetheart whom he had bench-pressed above his head just to convince

her that she hadn’t gained any weight.

There were coaches who remembered his power and grit. A friend

recalled the day Fenton took time to help him pick out flowers for a

girl he was going to ask to a dance. Another girl called him her

“mentor.” School employees called him a “rare student.”

There was Pete Sabatino, owner of Sabatino’s Italian Restaurant on

Lido Isle, where Fenton worked summers.

“I heard someone say today that he was the only one with brains in

the restaurant,” he said.

Fenton was killed when a sport utility vehicle he was driving

struck a flatbed tractor-trailer on Interstate 95 in Connecticut,

near the Bridgeport-Fairfield town line. The group of nine was

reportedly returning from a Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity event in

New York. Fenton, a junior at Yale, was the designated driver.

Kyle Burnat, 19, a sophomore pitcher on the Yale baseball team,

and Andrew Dwyer, 20, were also killed in the tragic accident. Two

students were hospitalized with serious injuries and three others

with non-life-threatening injuries.

Fenton was a gentle giant, someone who didn’t make much of his

physique or intelligence, said his father Robert Fenton.

“Sean was a friend to all,” he said, “despite his bicep size, neck

size or brain size.”

His Yale fraternity brothers, a few who made it to the service

Saturday, praised Fenton for his eagerness to help fellow students.

There were several sniffles among the mourners. But there were

laughs too, as some recalled Sean Fenton’s individualistic sense of

humor. Like the one time he chased his friend’s car down the street

just to see him and say hello.

Or, when on a blustery January night not too long before the

accident, Fenton was talking to a fellow Yale student about one of

their projects. Fenton, who was wearing only a t-shirt, pants and

sandals, got so involved in their conversation that he didn’t realize

he was freezing until his friend asked him: “Aren’t you cold?”

The stories came one after another. Tears flowed freely and hugs

came naturally as speakers comforted Fenton’s father, mother Janice

and brother Avery.

Fenton had wanted to go to Yale since he was in third grade, said

life-long friend Whitney Karlin.

“He’s the most decent person I’ve known,” she said, wiping away

tears. “He was the one person who believed in me when no one else

believed in me, when I didn’t believe in me.”

Fenton’s sixth-grade teacher, Nancy Urricariet, said “when Sean

entered a room, he hugged it.”

“More than anything else, he loved life,” she said. “He lived more

in 20 years than many of us have at 80.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.