From left, Muhammed "Ebad" Hasan, 19, and Imran Khan, 20, two University students from Martinez, Ga., were killed in a car accident on July 14. They are pictured here on a Spring Break trip in San Francisco. (Special - The Red & Black)
The two University students and their friend who were killed in a car accident July 13 are remembered by friends and family in the same way they lived their lives — with laughter.
Juniors Imran Khan, 20, and Muhammad Ebadullah Hasan, 19, — called Ebad by friends and family — were riding with a friend, Tariq Fischer, a sophomore at Swathmore College in Pennsylvania, when Fischer’s car hydroplaned and crossed the median of Interstate 20 into the lane of an oncoming tractor-trailer, said State Trooper Chad Garrett.
Garrett’s report noted alcohol was not involved and did not have an estimate of the speed the vehicle was traveling.
Khan and Fischer, close friends since childhood, were on their way to a Dave Matthews Band concert and were going to drop off Hasan at the airport, where he planned to spend the night before taking an early morning flight to visit his family in York, Pa.
The three were remembered in a funeral service at the Islamic Society of Augusta last Thursday.
Students have also left their thoughts and prayers online, at both the Islamic Society and the Muslim Student Association (MSA) Web sites and on the walls of the students’ Facebook profiles.
“They had a passion for everything,” said Adam Gobin, a senior from Trinidad and Tobago, who met Khan and Hasan through MSA, in which both were very active.
Khan was going to be in charge of the group’s public relations, while Hasan was going to be the association’s historian.
“They would put down anything to go pray,” Gobin said. “They were a role model for me religiously.”
Linu Abraham, a junior from Martinez who was close friends with both Khan and Hasan, remembered them calling friends to make sure everyone would go pray, leading the group to a quiet hallway in the Student Learning Center.
Khan and Hasan, who met through MSA and became close friends, were passionate about every other area of their lives, as well, friends said — for their friends, school and family. And for laughter.
“They were known for their corny jokes,” said Sara Khan, a sophomore at the University, and close friend of Khan’s sister, Nida Khan, also a sophomore.
Hasan, a biology major who planned to go to medical school, was from Saudi Arabia, and a resident assistant in Russell Hall.
He amused his residents with his quirky habit of staying up until the early hours of the morning whittling wood and his love of SpongeBob SquarePants.
Matthew Smith, a sophomore from Watkinsville, was a resident of Hasan’s who lived across the hall.
“He was so funny and so full of life. He could not carry a tune in a bucket, but he would sing at the top of his lungs, and it was terrible,” he said. “You would laugh out loud, and he would, too.”
His residents, who Hasan called “his boys,” are looking for a way to commemorate Hasan in or around Russell Hall.
“We respected him as a friend and mentor,” said Jason Broom, a sophomore from Roswell who lived on his hall.
Friends also remembered Hasan for his optimistic and caring personality.
“He was one of the most genuine people,” Abraham said. “You could go to him for anything, for help with anything.”
Khan, who was a microbiology major planning a career in dentistry, was both genuine and optimistic, as well as outgoing and charismatic, friends said.
Voted prom king in high school, Khan was known among friends for being up for anything, including 2 a.m. trips to Wal-Mart and last-minute adventures to The Cheesecake Factory.
His friends even dubbed him “Mr. Volunteer.”
“He would go anywhere you wanted to go,” said Gobin, an orientation leader this summer, and encouraged Khan to become one next summer.
Sara Khan remembered the “beat-up” white van he carried friends around in, nicknamed “Vanna White.” He would often use the van to carry friends who needed a ride back and forth between his home town of Martinez and Athens.
He even carried everyone to the Mosque in his van, Abraham said.
Abraham, who lived with Khan in Boggs Hall and was planning to be his roommate in the fall, remembered the trend Khan started in the dorm.
“He’s definitely a hugger,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing. He got all the guys in the dorm hugging.”
Sarah Qureshi, an incoming freshman from Augusta, knew whom to call one day when she came to Athens to fix a problem with her application.
“The first thing I did was call Imran,” she said.
Both Hasan and Khan, who had a test the next day, spent several hours taking her from building to building helping her straighten out the situation.
Qureshi spent the past several days visiting friends and family of the boys.
“We’re just trying to look at this as these guys had great personalities, and we’re looking at what we can learn from them,” she said.
The MSA is currently selling memorial bracelets in their honor to help fund an inter-denominational community center in Augusta, an idea dreamed up by Fischer and which all three boys hoped to see become a reality.