People who knew Ashley Forsythe said she was a quiet, studious woman until you got to know her.
And her mother, Christine, said Ashley’s passion for science and geology showed up at a young age. She said the precocious toddler was always caught with rats stuffed in her pockets and rocks bouncing around in her backpack.
“Our house is full of rocks now that we don’t know what to do with,” Christine said.
Forsythe, 20, was killed by a suspected drunk driver Dec. 18 near Cuba, NM. Her family, friends and professors — and even a couple administrators — gathered in Northrop Hall on Friday to celebrate the geology student’s life.
Provost Suzanne Ortega presented Ashley’s parents with a Bachelor’s of Science — a degree she all but earned before her last semester at UNM.
“This symbolizes the honors she so appropriately deserves,” Ortega said.
In addition to the degree, John Geissman, chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences, gave Ashley’s parents strands of green and yellow cords — Forsythe would have graduated with departmental honors, as well.
“It really is my pleasure to be here with you today,” he said, trying not to cry. “Ashley earned this with her hard work and dedication.”
Room 105 in Northrop Hall has a plaque on the wall dedicated to Ashley. It states, “In memory of Ashley Forsythe, who dreamed of studying volcanoes.”
After the degrees were presented, more than 30 people in the Northrop classroom broke into small groups, tossing around memories of Ashley they hold dear.
“She’ll be missed and she was the light that lit up every class that you were in,” Ashley’s high school friend, Melissa Dosanjh said.
And her grandmother, Joyce Yasym, said Ashley’s funeral drew almost 500 attendees. She’s never seen the church that full, she said.
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“We never forget, but our days keep going,” she told a group of family friends. “Life is so fragile. It really is.”
Her father, Rod, said Ashley’s passion for geology and volcanoes was evident when she would come home after school.
“We had to tell her to slow down and use regular English,” he said. “She was using words we didn’t know.”
Ashley’s professor, Maya Elrick, said she always sat in the front row during “Sedimentology and Stratigraphy,” an upper-level geology course. She said she always carried a paperback book and was a serious, somber student.
Family and friends passed around a leather-bound green book, writing letters to Ashley and her survivors.
“To Ashley’s family,” one such letter began written by friend Bill Brown, “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for your loss. Ashley was a great person and she was always a friendly face at times when I really needed to see a friendly face.”
Ashley’s friend, Chris Vardeman, wrote a letter to Ashley as well.
“You were one of the most genuine, sincere and passionate people I knew,” he said in the letter.
Almost two months ago, Ronald Martinez, 36, was driving south with his lights turned off in the northbound lane on State Road 550 when he collided with Forsythe’s Ford Ranger, according to a statement released Dec. 19 by Lt. Eric Garcia, New Mexico State Police spokesman.
According to the statement, NMSP officers observed an open container of beer in Martinez’s vehicle.
When people got to know Ashley, Dosanjh said, her quiet, somber demeanor fell away to reveal a woman filled with laughter.
“She had such an interesting mix of quiet and being right there, ready to take you on,” she said.
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