Family, friends memorialize Oliver Pacchiana

Recordings of the Penn Band played and pictures of Oliver Pacchiana flashed from a projector as over 100 people gathered Monday evening to celebrate the life of the Engineering junior.

“It makes sense that we’d have this beautiful weather as we remember, by all accounts, a beautiful life,” University Chaplain Chaz Howard said to open the service, which took place in the Engineering Quadrangle.

One by one, friends and family stepped up to the podium to memorialize Pacchiana — who died after a rock climbing accident on March 31 while studying abroad in Africa — each unfailingly speaking of his dedication and diligence as a mechanical engineering student, captain of the Penn Electric Racing team and sousaphonist in the Penn Band.

“Oliver, as far as I know, never left the lab,” said College junior David Kaiser-Jones, president of Penn Band and former housemate of Pacchiana’s. Last summer, before their lease started, both were in Philadelphia for internships when they bumped into each other on the street.

“Oliver, where are you living?” Kaiser-Jones recalled asking at the time.

“Oh, I’m living in lab,” Pacchiana responded.

“Does your mother know that?” Kaiser-Jones asked.

“No. My mother definitely does not know that,” Pacchiana replied.

“He slept in a different room every night because he thought the custodians were catching on to him,” Kaiser-Jones said.

Others told stories of Pacchiana’s dedication to the Penn Electric team. “Oliver often tallied over 40 hours per week on a project,” Engineering junior Justin Yim, co-captain of Penn Electric, said. “When we didn’t know something, he would start reading, contacting experts and devising experiments until he found a solution.”

Yim also announced that the team would rename the electric scooter that Pacchiana worked on, calling it “OPus” in his honor.

Penn Band Director Greer Cheeseman also remarked on Pacchiana’s dedication to the band. “I remember when Oliver joined the band — skinny, fresh-faced kid who played the sousaphone,” he said. Due to Pacchiana being “the low man on the totem pole,” he was given Cheeseman’s own personal, decrepit instrument.

“I should have known then that he was an engineering major,” Cheeseman said. “He was a master with duct tape. He did the impossible and made that thing playable.”

Pacchiana’s older brother Nolan reflected on his brother’s outgoing personality.

“From all corners of the globe, we learned about the young man Oliver had become,” Nolan said. He mentioned the tourist group Pacchiana was traveling with when the rock climbing accident occurred. While they only knew him briefly, they told his family stories about the “Ollie” that they had come to know.

While the memorial group came together because of Pacchiana’s death, the mood of the evening was uplifting as everyone remembered a life that touched many.

“I feel cheated that Oliver was taken away from us too soon when there are so many memories to be made,” College and Wharton sophomore Kevin Scanlan, a childhood friend from Pacchiana’s hometown of Greenwich, Conn., said.

“In his short time, Oliver did our family proud, did Greenwich proud and did Penn proud,” Nolan concluded.

Anyone wishing to contribute comment should contact author Will Marble at marble.will@gmail.com.

Please note All comments are eligible for publication in The Daily Pennsylvanian.