Student’s memorial scheduled

Funeral services are scheduled Friday for a Corona del Mar High School graduate who jumped to his death from a dormitory building at New York University earlier this week.

Students at Corona del Mar Wednesday remembered Allan Oakley Hunter III, or “Trey” as his friends called him, as a good student and friend, who seemed happy.

A freshman at NYU, 18-year-old Hunter graduated from Corona del Mar last school year. NYU officials have said Hunter’s death appears to be a suicide.

“He was very calm and relaxed and nice and friendly too,” said 15-year-old Corona del Mar sophomore Pete Walrod, whose older brother was friends with Hunter. “I was completely shocked when I found out. I didn’t see it coming.”

Hunter was the son of Newport Beach resident and rent.com co-founder Allan O. Hunter Jr. and the grandson of the late Republican congressman and Fannie Mae chairman Allan Oakley Hunter.

Since the death was announced over the school’s loud speaker system Tuesday, Corona del Mar students have been trying to understand why Hunter took his own life, Walrod said.

“People don’t know why he did it,” he said. “It makes me think he was a different person than what I thought.”

Other students said they remembered Hunter as happy at school.

“I was like, ‘Wow,’ it’s just really sad,” said 16-year-old Corona del Mar junior Galen Christison, who had Latin class with Hunter last year. “I always saw him around school, and he was smiling and everything.”

A memorial group in Hunter’s honor on the social networking website Facebook had 327 members Wednesday afternoon. Posts on the group’s message board remembered Hunter as a talented writer who worked for Corona del Mar’s student newspaper, Trident.

Hunter was found lying face down Saturday outside of his dorm, which was several stories above, police said.

New York City police believe Hunter, a Corona del Mar High School graduate, jumped from the rooftop of his dorm some time Saturday morning and was later found in the garden at least eight stories below his room, police said.

New York City police received a call at 10:15 a.m. Eastern Standard Time from the person who found Hunter’s body. He was pronounced dead at the scene, said New York Police Department’s Public Information Officer Martin Speechley.

Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Friday at Mariners Church, 5001 Newport Coast Drive, Irvine. Burial will follow at Pacific View Memorial Park in Corona del Mar.

KELLY STRODL may be reached at (714) 966-4623 or at kelly.strodl@latimes.com. BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.