Video: Calling Hours Held for Adam Hamilton

Hundreds of people turned out to commemorate the life of Adam Hamilton during calling hours held at this afternoon.

Hamilton, a 2007 graduate of Theodore Roosevelt High School, in Afghanistan after sustaining wounds from an improvised explosive device.

Among the photos and sports jerseys on display in the atrium, those paying their respects found their own memories of Hamilton.

Sandi Goodrich, who was Hamilton’s fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Walls Elementary School, said that Hamilton was a friend to everybody.

“He’s just the kind of kid that made you smile when he walked in the room,” Goodrich said. “He had that kind of effervescent personality. He could be a stinker, but he always took his punishment.”

In particular, Goodrich recalled when Hamilton acted as the disciplinarian of the class.

“He would be goofing around, and it would get too much, and he would be like, ‘OK, guys, you better cool it. Mrs. Goodrich is going to get mad,’” she said. “He was just all boy.”

Mike Geiger, Hamilton’s neighbor, also got to know Hamilton while he was young.  

“I’ve known him since he was waist-high, and the memories I have of that young man now, sitting on the porch, that’s what keep popping into my head,” Geiger said. “Those were the precious memories.”

When Geiger became Hamilton’s high school hockey coach years later, their close relationship came into play.

“That enabled me to ride him as hard as anybody could when I coached him,” Geiger said. “Still, at the end of the day, he’d come home to me and hug me and tell me how much he loved me and cared about me, and I felt the same about him.”

For Ben Barlow, Hamilton’s head high school hockey coach, the most definitive “Adam moment” he remembered was Hamilton’s final hockey game during his senior year. The team was playing Walsh Jesuit in the Baron Cup Championship, and Hamilton decided he was going to take his game to the next level.

“He was such a good player,” Barlow said. “It was just a perfect representation of who he was, and it was one of the most amazing, I think, individual efforts I’ve ever seen.”

While his coaches remembered his performance on the ice, Hamilton’s teammates laughed about his behavior outside of games and practice.

Colin Miner, who played hockey with Hamilton from the time they were both 5 years old, talked about a team camping trip during his and Hamilton’s sophomore year of high school. It was late at night, and they were supposed to go to bed, but Hamilton wasn’t having it.

“Adam’s up in the top bunk somewhere, and he’s just making jokes, like cracking everybody up, and nobody’s going to bed,” Miner said. “Coach comes in and gets real serious, like, ‘You guys are all going to bed right now or else … I’m going to make you guys do sprints.’ So Adam was like, ‘All right,’ jumps out of bed, he’s in his boxers or whatever, and everybody just starts running … that was Adam, though. Every moment was just fun.”

Though they both shared anecdotes about Hamilton, Miner and Geiger said it was difficult to pick just one story.

“There’s too many memories to list with Adam. He was one of a kind. He was one in a million, and he will never be replaced by anybody in this community,” Geiger said. “Adam was unique. Adam was special, plain and simple.”

Hamilton’s funeral is scheduled for 11 a.m. Thursday in the Theodore Roosevelt High School auditorium. Burial will follow at Standing Rock Cemetery. The family has asked that, instead of flowers, donations be made to the Adam Hamilton Scholastic Athletic Scholarship through Portage Community Bank in Kent or Ravenna.