That's how students at Notre Dame today are remembering Sullivan, a 20-year-old junior at the northern Indiana university who was killed Wednesday filming a football practice when the tower he was standing on collapsed in high winds.
Those who knew him say Sullivan, a film marketing and television and theater major from Long Grove, Ill., was buzzing with life.
"He was extremely enthusiastic and full of energy," Matt Gramber, the editor of Notre Dame's college paper, The Observer, told AOL News today in a phone interview. He said Sullivan, who wrote for The Observer, was a great arts reporter as well.
"He was tough," Gramber said. "He did a really good job of writing stories that just allowed his passion and his excitement for the events he covered. He tracked down some tough interviews."
It was that persistence, perhaps, that drove Sullivan to keep filming from a hydraulic scissor lift high above the school's football field Wednesday, as gusts of up to 51 mph whipped across the stadium. In the hours before he fell to his death, Sullivan tweeted about the dangerous conditions. The tweets, obtained by the South Bend Tribune, are disturbing.
"Gusts of wind up to 60 mph well today will be fun at work ... I guess I've lived long enough," he tweeted as practice began. Half an hour later, he wrote this: "Holy [expletive] holy [expletive] this is terrifying."
Not long after, the 50-foot tower collapsed. Sullivan, who was rushed to a local hospital, later died of his injuries.
Notre Dame President the Rev. John Jenkins said the school is in shock. "Our hearts go out to the student's family and friends, and our prayers and profound sympathies are with them during this incredibly difficult time. The loss of someone so young is a terrible shock and a great sadness. Our entire community shares in the family's grief," Jenkins told The Associated Press.
A campus memorial service for Sullivan was scheduled for today.
Students said their loss was terrible. Marc Anthony Rosa told The Observer that it was an "impossible task" to describe what Sullivan meant to his friends.
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"He's an unbelievably unique soul that, when you meet him, he's completely addicting to be around. He's nonstop energy. He's like no one else you've ever met," he told the paper. "Although he may not be here, his soul is impossible to leave this campus and the people who've known him."Notre Dame linebacker Brian Smith spoke out about the tragedy on his Twitter feed. "In the midst of a season where you are disappointed with the outcomes," he wrote, "you can lose sight of what's most important. Sad day at practice."
Sullivan's uncle, Michael Miley, said the family was filled with grief. "Dec is a very smart, very funny, very friendly young man, and that personality always seemed to come out, and that's going to be missed. The world is just not the same without him," he told WLS-TV/ABC today.
An investigation into the accident is pending, officials said.