The Pepperdine University community is mourning the unexpected death of an undergraduate student. An on-campus memorial service was held Thursday evening in Stauffer Chapel for Jake Brandon Harris. The 19-year-old from Tucson, Ariz., was a second-year business major who died in a fiery solo car crash in the early morning hours of Jan. 15 during the long Martin Luther King Jr. Day Weekend.
The chapel was overflowing Thursday night with fellow students and faculty to say goodbye to the young man who is being remembered as “selfless and cheerful.”
“He was goofy and quirky and he could light up a room just with the weird strange things he would say,” according to Harris’ girlfriend, fellow Pepperdine sophomore Annabelle Roberts, age 19. “He would say some crazy off-the-wall sort of things, but it would make the whole room laugh. He had the biggest smile all the time.
“Sometimes he would tell me he was stressed, but he would come over to my room because he didn’t want to be stressed anymore and when he would walk in the door he’d have this huge smile on his face,” she continued. “I’d say, ‘I thought you were stressed,’ and he’d say, ‘I am, but I’m happy to be with you.’ He was really precious.”
Roberts told The Malibu Times there were not enough seats in Stauffer Chapel to accommodate friends who wanted to pay their respects. “He was super-selfless.”
“I have two autoimmune diseases and right into when we started dating he put his head in my lap and he said, ‘If I could take away every ounce of pain you’ve ever felt I would and put it right into my body because it makes me so sad when you don’t feel good,’” Roberts recalled. “Then he just rolled over and started watching TV again like that’s something anyone would say. It takes a certain type of selfless person to ever say that to someone and it really, really touched me. That’s when I first realized I really, really loved him.”
A California Highway Patrol report says Harris was driving a Jeep on the 110 Freeway before 2 a.m. last Monday at a high rate of speed, lost control and struck a concrete wall. The car rolled over and quickly caught on fire.
Roberts says Harris told her he was driving to Redondo Beach to visit a friend and didn’t use navigation apps. She suspects he got lost.
“That’s what’s bothering me and his family the most,” she said. “We don’t really know what he was doing. He said he went to visit a friend in Redondo Beach, but he drove way past it. He wasn’t from the area so maybe he just got lost. We’re not sure.” Harris never did make it to Redondo Beach.
Assistant Chief Coroner Ed Winter said no suicide note was found and that toxicology reports will take six weeks to complete.
A funeral service is planned for Friday, Jan. 26, in Harris’ hometown of Tucson.
A Pepperdine spokeswoman reported the school’s Counseling Center, Chaplain’s Office and Seaver College Dean’s Office is welcoming calls and visits from community members seeking support as they process this loss.
Roberts said she and Harris’ other friends couldn’t think of any bad memories they have of the young man with the winning smile.
“No one could think of a single thing. He was such a touchy-feely, emotional guy,” she said. “He had a heart of gold.”