O’BRIEN Phillip Tapper, the 21-year-old driver who died in a motor vehicle crash along the Palisadoes main road in Kingston, was last Wednesday remembered as a young, jovial, loving, polite, caring, and enthusiastic individual whose short existence positively impacted the lives of everyone he encountered.

The memorial service celebrating his life was held at Christ Church located in Vineyard Town, South East St Andrew. The tragic motor vehicle crash which took his life along with his friend and passenger at the time, Luke Anthony Dillon, occurred on June 21.

At the emotional farewell service where Tapper’s remains were absent, tributes were offered by Captain Devron Newman, dean of Marine & Professional Studies, Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI), his friend Nicholas Powell, and stepmother Antoinette McCaw-Smith.

“I had the opportunity of interviewing Cadet Tapper on Friday, June 21, approximately 30 minutes before the accident occurred,” Newman said in his tribute.

“Again, with unexpected suddenness, death has come among us. O’Brien has silently closed the door of life and departed from us, never again to return,” Newman said to the hundreds of silent mourners and well-wishers, who filled the pews and stood against the walls of the church to bid farewell to the aspiring marine pilot.

Newman said that the loss of the aspiring marine pilot’s life is the loss of a powerful youth who would have made a difference in our society.

“I hasten to describe the dream I saw in O’Brien. It was akin to the tallest white house in the world — the Jeddah lighthouse in Saudi Arabia. A white cylindrical ,conspicuous concrete and steel structure which stands 133 metres tall, fitted with a visibility of 25 miles. This is how I saw his future. Bright!” Newman said.

“The cadets here can attest to my several reminders of how important it is to be humble and respectful, to work hard, to be punctual, to be responsible for their actions, to be polite and to be mindful of other persons around them. These qualities were evident in the way that O’Brien lived,” he further stated.

According to Powell, close friend of Tapper since they were enrolled as students at St Theresa Preparatory School over a decade ago, he was no ordinary human being and was loving and caring of all his peers.

“O’Brien Tapper, who was also known as OB by many of his peers, was no ordinary person ever since I met him at prep school. He was obedient, bold, responsible, intelligent, energetic and most of all, loving,” Powell said in his tribute.

McCaw-Smith, said that Tapper was a young man whom everyone admired.

“I have watched O’Brien grow and mature from a young child into a teenager, and into the awesome young man he was. His personality was so gentle and he was so caring. He showed many of us that a passive approach is at times more effective than aggression,” the mourning woman who had a close relationship with Tapper said while being consoled by O’Brien’s father, Phillip.

Brian McCalla, another close friend of Tapper since his days of attending St George’s College, said in the eulogy that they recently attended a funeral together for one of their friends who died tragically, and he never imagined that the next funeral would have been that of Tapper’s.

“Recently, a friend of mine died tragically. O’Brien left school and came to the funeral. He sat beside me, nudged me and said, ‘You can cry inuh’. I would never have imagined that the next funeral would have been his. Three days before that tragic afternoon, I passed his house. When I was leaving, he hit me and said, ‘last lick’. I didn’t know he meant it. Those words will always be etched in my memories. The world has lost a great young man, but it is now better because he was here,” he said.

Tapper was born on March 2, 1992. His academic development began at St Theresa Preparatory School at the tender age of two. He then matriculated into St George’s College before joining the CMI in August 2009.

He successfully completed the first phase of his studies and was subsequently assigned to the M/T ‘Marida Patea’; a Maltese flag tank vessel; with tour of duty in the United Kingdom, Europe and Scandinavia where he served seven months before returning to continue his academic studies in November 2012.

At the time of his passing, he had one week left before writing his professional examinations, which would have been a significant milestone en route to becoming a navigating officer in his career development.

Tapper will be cremated at a later date.