Tony Gorder

Bradley Odens, a 23-year-old SDSU student, was a fun-loving person who was involved with Concert Choir and Capers, according to friends and faculty.

Odens was fatally shot while entering the wrong house at 1:54 a.m. on April 9.

The senior electronics engineering technology major was also remembered as being kind and cheerful.

“He was very light-hearted ? ready with a joke,” said Byron Garry, Odens’ adviser and coordinator of electronics and engineering technology

“I knew him as a kind, fun-loving guy who everyone liked having around. He will be greatly missed by the SDSU Concert Choir and the greater SDSU community,” said Ben Sieverding, a fellow concert choir member.

“I met him my freshman year in Concert Choir, and we got to know each other very well over the course of that year through Choir and other on-campus events such as Capers,” said Jerron Jorgensen, friend and fellow concert choir member. “He was able to cheer anyone up, and all he ever wanted was for people to have a good time and enjoy their life. I can honestly say that in his 23 years on this planet, he lived more than some 80-year-old men that I know.”

A memory that many shared was Odens’ resemblance to Abraham Lincoln.

“I know many of us in the choir had the opportunity to share a laugh with him, especially when he wore an Abe Lincoln-style top hat around Washington, D.C., when the choir went there two years ago,” said Sieverding. “Easily, my fondest memory of him would be when the SDSU Concert Choir traveled to Washington, D.C., in the summer of 2006,” said Jorgensen. “Brad was famous on campus for being an Abraham Lincoln look-a-like, so when the choir arrived at Ford Theatre, some of my friends and I convinced Brad to run across the street to an Abe Lincoln gift shop and buy a tuxedo bucket hat. He wore it all around Washington, D.C., giving fake speeches, giving autographs, taking pictures with tourists and even having a fake inauguration.”

Garry said he did not know Odens’ career goals but said Odens wanted to incorporate his love of music into his electronics engineering technology major. Odens was working on a group project for his major, constructing a turntable that could be controlled wirelessly.