6| At Your Servery • 16|Titanic Belfast • 36|The ... - Rice University

LAST SUMMER, BEN HORNE ’02, ALONG WITH HIS FRIEND GIL WEISS, DIED IN A MOUNTAIN CLIMBING ACCIDENT IN THE
CORDILLERA BLANCA RANGE OF THE PERUVIAN ANDES. SINCE THEN, A VAST COMMUNITY OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS HAS
GATHERED IN THE PLACES HORNE LOVED BEST — ON MOUNTAINS AND TRAILS, IN CHURCHES AND PARKS, IN THE HOMES
OF FRIENDS AND FAMILY, AND ON RICE’S CAMPUS — TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE A LIFE LIVED WITH UNCOMMON JOY
AND ACCOMPLISHMENT. DURING ONE OF THOSE SERVICES HELD IN SAN DIEGO LAST SUMMER, BEN’S CLOSE FRIEND SKYE
SCHELL ’05 SUMMED UP HIS THOUGHTS: “BEN WAS INSPIRATION. THAT’S WHAT HE WAS TO ALL OF US. HE BROUGHT THE
MESSAGE OF STOKE. SINCE WE’RE HERE IN CHURCH, WE COULD SAY HE WAS AN APOSTLE OF STOKE.”
ONE • FAMILY FOUNDATIONS
At 6 feet 2 inches and approximately 185
pounds, Ben Horne stood tall and strong. His
most defining features: a curly blond mop,
sparkly blue eyes and an expansive smile. As
evidenced by the entries in his blog, Zoom
Loco, Horne was a prolific chronicler of his
life’s experiences. By way of introduction
there, he wrote, “My heroes are Tank Man,
Tolstoy and Jesus Christ. I do believe that a
better world is coming. My goal is to be the
most complete person I can be. Full stop.”
When Horne’s friends and family describe
his life, the same adjectives are uttered time
and again — inspiring, passionate, authentic.
He loved mountains and sunsets. To a great
extent, these traits can be traced to Horne’s
early years, growing up in a warm and loving
family, the oldest of Gary and Chris Horne’s
four children. “Ben felt he had the best childhood
experience because he lived in the
country as a young kid, on a six-acre farm in
south central Pennsylvania, moved to Hawaii
and then close to D.C., so that he experienced
all the benefits of a rural and suburban life,”
Chris said.
Horne learned basic hiking and backpacking
skills by participating in the Boy Scouts,
with great encouragement from Gary. The
family often vacationed in the national parks
of the American West and enjoyed family
nights playing board games. Their religious
faith played a large part in the family members’
lives, no doubt motivating Ben, as an adult,
to seek out the divine in all he did — from
rock climbing to his studies. His Catholic faith
served as foundation for his pursuit of peace
and conflict resolution in his future career.
To his younger siblings (Eric, 30; Math,
26; and Liz, 22), “Ben was the big brother
that all three looked up to,” said Chris Horne.
He drove his younger brother Eric to school,
loyally attended sporting events, and spent
countless hours talking politics and music. He
recorded songs with Math and, having always
served as a mentor to Liz, shared his love of
other cultures with her during a joint trip to
Central America.
In one of many eulogies delivered at
Horne’s funeral in Virginia last August, Math
said, “Ben’s week beats your year. He climbs
unclimbable peaks after running inhuman distances
only stopping to write, rap, pray or read
up on how to start the revolution. He never
settles or merely copes. People might say,
wholehearted. Unrelenting. He maintains the
light. Persistent. Deliberate. He says it’s his 100
percent raw Lithuanian beef. I call it guts.”
MATH’S EULOGY: ricemagazine.info/135
TWO • WIESSMAN
Because of Horne’s love for the mountains
and outdoor pursuits, attending a school in
Houston seemed a long shot — after all, it is
flat. His parents remember that their son was
won over by the bucolic tree-canopied campus
and diverse student body, and so Horne
entered the Class of 2002.
He found a home at Wiess College,
where current Dean of Undergraduates John
Hutchinson and his wife, Paula, were then
masters. On the academic side, Horne studied
economics, math and political science. Soon
enough, he made a name for himself as both
the life of the party (though his drink of choice
was orange juice) and a citizen-philosopher
deeply engaged in service.
Between his sophomore and junior years
at Rice, Horne hiked the Appalachian Trail
end-to-end by himself and at a near-recordsetting
pace. The experience of solo hiking
at such an impressionable age (he turned 20
en route) was transformative, he said. His
journals from that time reveal a maturing and
probing mind. In one prophetic passage, he
wrote, “The goal of changing things for the
better can be reached — the key is to inspire
others, to affect other people in little ways,
and they in turn will continue to pass it down.
When we seek personal glory, we can achieve
transient fame; if we seek to better the world,
we can contribute to lasting results. If we
don’t pass it on, it will fade as memories of
us fade.”
At Rice, Horne felt immense pride for his
work with KTRU, the student radio station,
what he called “one of the greatest things
about the university” and a platform for
“I am sure many stories about Ben have been told
these last few weeks, and many more will be told in
the years to come. Tell those stories. Ben loved stories.”
—Eric Horne, Aug. 7, 2012, Annandale, Va.
independent musicians. He was a DJ there for
four years, the DJ director his junior year and
station manager his senior year. Former station
manager Johnny So ’01 credits Horne with
changing the culture of the station, making it
more open and accessible to the student body.
At the dedication, So said, “Ben immediately
stood out — here was a guy that was not only
extremely involved in student life at Rice, he
was actually popular! That alone was almost a
disqualifier for working at KTRU.”
When the 40-year-old station’s tower was
sold in 2010 to the University of Houston,
Horne, along with a dedicated group of KTRU
alumni, opposed the sale. On savektru.org, he
wrote, “KTRU is an idea. A philosophy. KTRU
is not just a club. It is a cause. KTRU is, even,
possibly a religion.” Ultimately the sale of the
FM license went through, but the station survives
as KTRU-HD radio, available through
the Internet and mobile devices. To honor
Horne’s advocacy and service, KTRU’s broadcast
studio, located on the second floor of the
Rice Memorial Center, was dedicated the Ben
Horne Memorial Studio last October.
During Rice’s centennial and reunion weekend
(the 10th reunion for the Class of 2002), a
group of Horne’s classmates and friends gathered
in the Hindman Garden for an informal
tribute of words and song. Horne’s parents
flew in for this event, which was organized
by Lizzie Taishoff Sweigart ’01. In a peaceful
grove of giant live oaks, Dean Hutchinson,
Liora Danan ’03, Adam Larson ’05, Josh Katz
’01, Josh Hale ’02, Iris Hurtado Wingrove ’02,
Saheel Sutaria ’02, So and others took turns
sharing stories of their college years.
Sutaria and Wingrove first met Horne during
O-Week. Hale was Horne’s freshman-year
roommate. Their voices conjured memories of
Freshman One-Act plays and “Hello, Hamlet”;
of beach trips, spontaneous road trips, flag
football and water-gun fights; of chasing and
Rice Magazine • No. 15 • 2013 37