Matthew Droz had just begun to look for a job. After six years at MSU, the advertising senior was ready to receive his degree in May.
“He was so excited to be graduating and so excited to be done,” said Amy Weinberger, Droz’s girlfriend of three and a half years.
But he won’t get the chance to walk across the stage at graduation. Droz died suddenly Saturday after suffering a seizure at his home in Farmington Hills, Mich. He was 23.
Loved ones gathered Monday for burial services. Family and friends plan to sit shivah, a Jewish mourning tradition, until Thursday at the family’s home.
Weinberger, who recently transferred from MSU to Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, said family and friends were the most important thing to him. He made frequent visits to family members and had a passion for people’s feelings, she said.
“Every time he’d hang up the phone he’d say ‘I love you,’” Weinberger recalled of her conversations with him. “If I didn’t say it right back before he hung up he’d call me back.”
That compassion went far beyond his family and girlfriend, friends say.
Communication junior Alyse Mellin met Droz through Weinberger, but she said he was like a big brother.
“He looked over me,” Mellin said. “He just wanted everything to be the best for his friends and family.”
And people returned the love he showed for them, said Alex Ayzenberg, who met Droz nearly five years ago through mutual friends.
“He loved everybody and everybody loved him,” he said “People who meet him for the first time feel like they’ve known him forever.”
Friends also said Droz had a passion for MSU. He held season football tickets and often attended basketball and hockey games.
“He’s probably the most energized, loyal friend I know,” said Brian Markle, an MSU alumnus who knew Droz for six years. “He was a die-hard Spartan. He lived for the Spartans.”
Droz was even brave enough to stand up at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor during MSU’s matchup against the University of Michigan. Despite having hot dogs and other objects hurled in his direction, Droz held up his MSU hat with pride, said Rob Goldman, a medical technology sophomore.
He displayed the same enthusiasm at home games, Goldman said, recalling how the two would get up at 8 a.m. on game days to tailgate.
“He would terrorize the other fans,” he said.
Few could match the same level of passion about anything, said Benjamin Manson, a first-year MSU-Detroit College of Law student.
Manson and Droz met their freshman year at North Farmington High School in Farmington Hills, where they quickly became best friends.
“School pride was everything to him,” Manson said. “Whenever anyone was in doubt of the university, he was just: ‘State is the greatest.’”
Droz’s upcoming graduation from MSU would have fulfilled his main goal, Manson said.
In October 1997, Droz fell from a loft ladder in his Holden Hall room, receiving a severe head injury.
The injury caused him to reduce his class load for the semester and caused occasional seizures, friends said.
“It didn’t matter how long it took,” Manson said. “He just thrived to meet his goal.”
But at the same time Droz was working to meet his goal, Manson recalled how he always found time for his friends and, no matter what faults they had, loved them unconditionally.
“He’s the best friend I could ever have,” he said. “No one will ever replace him.”
Family members have set up the Matthew Droz Memorial Fund for Closed Head Injuries to offer help for anyone with a head injury and promote educational purposes. Donations to the fund should be sent in care of Jeffrey Ellis, 2855 Coolidge Highway, No. 103, Troy, Mich. 48084.
Jeremy W. Steele can be reached at steelej7@msu.edu.
