Fatal Crash Victim's Spirit Remains Alive in School Community

Tamir Harry was a lively student who had a memorable smile and laugh, recalled friends, family and members of the South Orange Maplewood School District (SOMSD) community at a gathering Wednesday at Columbia High School.

Harry, 16, and Kervin Noel, 21, were killed in the Aug. 6 crash at the intersection of Essex Avenue and South Fourth Street in Maplewood. Harry's older brother, Tahsir, 20, and Rodney Lovius, 21, were seriously injured in the accident.

Harrison Allen, 20, of Montclair, pleaded not guilty last week to vehicular homicide and aggravated assault by auto charges.

Friends of Tamir Harry, a CHS student, and Tahsir Harry, who remains in a coma in intensive care, shared words of support with parents, teachers and administrators on Wednesday afternoon.

Tamir Harry is remembered by family, friends and CHS faculty for being incomparably positive, clever and outgoing.

“I remember him smiling all the time,” said science teacher Kristin Furlong, who taught Tamir’s Biology class in her first year at CHS. “He always had this laugh that he would do when he finished a sentence. I keep hearing that in my head.”

Thahabu Gordon, 17, from Maplewood, went to South Orange Middle School with Tamir Harry. She said she found out about the wreck through Twitter.

“It was just really sad,” she said. “I was really angry when I found out that he passed.”

“He was always cracking jokes and he was really smart,” Gordon said of Tamir. “We had Pre-Algebra together in eighth grade and the teacher would throw any problem at him and he would solve it without a calculator.”

The Maplewood-South Orange community has rallied to help pay for the funerals for Harry and Noel. Anyone wishing to contribute can do so through the HK Project, a community focused charity, by following this link and clicking “HK C.A.R.E.”

Tamir’s family said they would announce arrangements to the public as soon as they are made, which likely will not be until his older brother is released from the hospital.

“[Tahsir] is heavily sedated,” said Brian Harry, the boys’ uncle. “He is not aware of what is going on. He does not yet know that his brother is dead.”

Brian Harry said his family and their close friends need three things: prayers, support and education.

“It’s a big loss,” CHS Principal Kirk Smith said, “not just to those of us who knew [Tamir], but to those who he would have met and influenced. And he’ll never get the chance now.”