Javal Shah loved sports, his friends and family said. He was a member of Orange Krush and his friends said he never missed a University basketball game. He was also an ardent Cubs fan. On April 10, Shah and four friends decided to go to a Cubs game. It was during that trip that the five of them got into a car accident and Shah was killed.

Two weeks later, his friends and family mourn the death of Javal Shah, a University student who was described by his high school friend Jeffrey Chang as “one of the nicest guys, one of the best guys around.”

“(Javal’s mother) is still in shock,” said Hemant Shah, Javal’s father. “She’s still not ready to accept it.”

On the way to the Cubs game, the car Shah was riding in was cut off by another vehicle on Interstate 57. The car was forced onto the shoulder of the road; When the driver tried to come back on the road, the car went into a barrel roll.

Shah was the only passenger not wearing a seat belt, said Dan Thorngren, freshman in LAS, and when the car rolled, he was severely injured. He was put on life support that day and was taken off of it later that week, Ruth McCauley, associate dean of students said.

The accident left two of the other passengers with injuries; one student had an arm injury and another had a neck injury. Both students are doing well now, said McCauley.

Shah was born in India in 1987 and moved to the U.S. when he was five. He lived in Round Lake, Ill., a suburb north of Chicago. He has a twin brother, Valay, who is a student at the University of Southern California and an older brother, Sethu, a student at Purdue University. His father said he and his wife recognized Javal’s academic talents early on. Shah attended Illinois Math and Science Academy (IMSA) for high school – he was even able to skip his freshman year of high school and enter IMSA, which teaches grades 10-12 only, a year early.

Shah was a freshman in business and he came to the University to major in accounting. He lived with Thorngren, a random roommate chosen by the school. The two lived together in Pennsylvania Avenue Residence Halls this year and quickly became good friends, Thorngren said.

“We were really close,” Thorngren said. “I don’t think I could have asked for a better roommate.”

Thorngren described Shah as someone who, along with sports, was really passionate about politics. He was very opinionated and would be quick to argue politics with anyone who would listen, but Thorngren said he was never obnoxious about it.

Some of his friends at the Psi Upsilon house, where he was pledging this semester, agreed with Thorngren’s observation.

“He could talk about anything for hours,” said Matt Martinez, Psi Upsilon president and sophomore in LAS.

“He was incredibly intelligent but kind of a smart aleck in a funny way,” said Matt Buckles, freshman in LAS and Pledge Educator for Psi Upsilon.

Shah would have been initiated into the fraternity at the end of this month, Martinez said. And in light of his death the members of Psi Upsilon decided that they would landscape the area around their basketball court and re-paint the court itself so they could dedicate the area to Shah.

The viewing was held on April 14 and was conducted in a traditional Hindu style. However, anyone who wanted to express their experiences with Shah was welcome to and many people did. Five hundred people attended, including at least five vans of students sent from IMSA, Hemant Shah said. Martinez said that 18 guys from Psi Upsilon visited him while he was in the hospital and even more attended the funeral. Chang created a Web site in honor of Shah at http://javal-shah.memory-of.com/about.aspx.

Shah planned on either becoming a Certified Public Accountant or getting a masters degree in business administration after graduating, Hemant Shah said. But those aspirations are just a memory now, a part of the memories that all who knew him hold onto now.

“We were just starting to become really good friends – we were talking about more than just sports,” Buckles said. “I was looking forward to him moving into the house next year.”

Matt Nimrick, sophomore in LAS and member of Psi Epsilon, said Shah was very intelligent and quick-witted.

“He was going to go far,” Nimrick said.

“Nobody disliked him, he was fun to be around,” Chang said. “He brought something to the room that made you feel good. No one ever minded having Javal around.”