SILOAM SPRINGS — A Siloam Springs youth was killed a day after his 18th birthday and another teen was in serious condition after a car crash south of Siloam Springs last Wednesday.
Eric Marshall was pronounced dead at Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital after the one-vehicle crash, according to the report from Arkansas State Police.
Marshall just finished his senior year at Siloam Springs High School and was scheduled to graduate Saturday. He was involved in Future Business Leaders of America and the debate team.
Brian Aguilar of Siloam Springs, the passenger in the vehicle, was taken to Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville.
As of Thursday afternoon, Aguilar, also 18, was in serious condition.
School faculty said Marshall had a brilliant mind and could often be caught reading Friedrich Nietzsche.
Upon graduation he planned to study computers at the University of Arkansas.
Lisa Hotsenpiller, faculty sponsor of FBLA and one of Marshall’s teachers, said he was an “easy-going kid” who knew who he was.
“He didn’t discriminate against anybody,” she said. “He would talk to everybody. He would talk to the kids no one else would talk to. He would talk to the popular kids.He was so comfortable being himself, and he fully embraced that.”
The crash happened less than a mile south of Siloam Springs on Arkansas Highway 59.
Marshall was driving southbound in a 2003 Toyota Corolla and failed to negotiate a right-hand curve. His car ran off the highway, descended a deep embankment and hit trees.
Both Aguilar and Marshall were wearing seat belts, the report showed.
Megan Denison, Marshall’s teacher and debate coach, marked Marshall as a student who was conscientious and thoughtful.
“And he didn’t compromise,” she said. “It was more important for him to be who he was than to do something against the grain of who he was.”
Principal Charlie Abernathy said he recently read a paper Marshall wrote reflecting on the question of what he would change about his life if he had the ability.
“He said, ‘Nothing,’” Abernathy said.
“The kid lived his life with no regrets,” Hotsenpiller added.
This is the fourth student at Siloam Springs High School who died this school year, the principal said. There were two juniors, one freshman and one senior.
News, Pages 3 on 05/26/2010