November 5, 2004

A community remembers Bobby Tang

July 19, 1987 to Oct. 23, 2004

By Bea Baechle
Editor

The Silver Creek High School community, aching to remember 17-year-old Bobby Tang as he had lived—not as he died—has temporarily transformed a section of Evergreen’s Dove Hill Park into a memorial shrine.

The memorial, laden with roses, stuffed animals, photos, remembrances, notes of love and peace and the treats he enjoyed—sodas, peanuts, cookies, Little Caesar’s pizza, Lee’s sandwiches—indicate that this teenager was definitely in the wrong place, at the wrong time. Carved in the tree at the center of the memorial is “R.I.P. Bobby Tang.”

Bobby with friends

You can walk by at almost any time of the day or the night, and you’re likely to find one of his many friends pausing at the site dedicated to the high school senior whose life tragically ended there during Silver Creek’s homecoming weekend at approximately 3 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 23.

Ask these friends about Bobby, and they remember his infectious smile, his sense of humor, his loyalty and his ability to befriend just about anybody. A Web site created in his honor includes a blog of more than 100 loving notes to Bobby from friends who miss him and still can’t believe that he’s gone.

“He never had any problems with anybody,” said Michael Vu, one of Tang’s close friends who helped create a movie of Bobby with another friend, Paul Hoang.

“Everyone was crying after they watched it,” added Vu, who intends to duplicate the movie onto CDs and sell them to Tang’s friends, donating all of the proceeds to Tang’s family.

Vu stops by the memorial every day to “talk” to Bobby Tang and let him know that he was loved and that he’s not forgotten. “He always used to act like a fun, mature baby,” remembered Vu. “And he loved school.”

Vu said that Tang wasn’t even supposed to be there that fatal night—he was just helping a friend with a ride.

A high school in mourning
Bobby Tang’s murder was the first of a student attending Silver Creek, a high school that has worked very hard to clean up its facility, add more advanced placement classes and focus on raising its standards as an educational institution.

For Principal Ana Lomas, who is in her fourth year at the helm of Silver Creek, it’s personal. Tang would have been a part of the first graduating class that she had shepherded from the day students arrived at the school.

“It was a tragic, horrible thing,” said Lomas, noting that Tang had grown up in the neighborhood and that many of his friends had known him since elementary school. Students raised more than $5,000 in cash to help the family pay for a proper burial. Lee’s Sandwiches will match whatever they raise.

On Wednesday, Oct. 27, approximately 500 students attended a memorial in the Silver Creek gymnasium with Tang’s parents, who are mourning the loss of their only son. According to Lomas, “you could have heard a pin drop.”

The lunchtime memorial ended with the movie tribute to Bobby Tang.

Friends remember sweet, likable guy
“He was a sweet boy,” recalled Nancy Nguyen, a student at San Francisco State who stopped by the Dove Hill memorial after viewing the body of her friend at Oakhill Cemetery on Oct. 28. “He really did have a good heart. He was always there for his friends.”

Nguyen said that Tang loved alternative music and had played in a band. “He was really good at school, and he was planning to go to college,” she added. “He had so much to look forward to as a senior, with the first semester almost over, but he didn’t even get a chance [to enjoy it].”

The memorial is laden with roses, stuffed animals, photos, remembrances, and notes of love and peace.

“He had the brightest smile, to the point where you could hardly see his eyes. We called him Pooh Bear, because of his chubby cheeks,” continued Nguyen, fighting back the tears. “He’s the kind of person you develop a bond with really fast. You feel like you’ve known him forever.”

She also remembered Tang as someone who “was always full of energy and always wanted to help people when they were down. You meet him once, and you just can’t forget him. When you hug him, it’s like hugging a bear.”

On the lighter side, Nguyen remembers egging Tang on to eat the whole cake she had baked for her sixteenth birthday. He scraped off the whipped cream, and happily complied, eating all but one piece.

“And he was infatuated with Kristin Kreuk from the TV program Smallville,” said Nguyen, noting that he carried a little picture of her in his wallet.

Nguyen said that Tang’s death was particularly painful because it was so unexpected and just one more passing in a string of deaths of her friends, lost through accidents or illness.

“It makes me wonder why things happen,” added Nguyen, pausing to light another incense stick for her Buddhist friend.

Two young men pulled up and placed a Lee’s sandwich at the memorial. Silver Creek junior Vien Tran spoke of his friend as if he was still alive.

“He’s easy to talk to,” said Tran. “He would give you a ride without complaining. Whenever it’s boring, he doesn’t complain.”

“He’s friendly and he’s always there for his friends,” said Tran. “It wasn’t worth it.”

Final good byes
According to the Buddhist tradition, Tang’s spirit will be present for 100 days after his death. After Bobby’s death, his mom spent one day going from class to class with one of his friends, sitting in her son’s seat. She will return in 100 days to make the same round, and at that time, will collect his journals and essays from his journalism class, his projects from his art class and whatever else is left.

His parents opted to cremate Bobby after consulting with Buddhist monks who advised this route given the circumstances of his death. After 100 days of prayer, his ashes will be released into the ocean.

Michele Madrigal, a former Silver Creek English teacher who moved to Orange County when her husband got a new job, came to the funeral at Oak Hill Cemetery on Oct. 29 to say good bye to the young man who had served as her third-period teacher’s assistant last year.

She credits Tang for pulling together that class and creating a positive, strong identity among the students. On April Fool’s Day last year, she sent Tang to about five teachers on a hunt for a book that she “had to have.” When he returned to the class and realized that he’d been duped, Madrigal said he was so gracious about the joke.

“That was the Bobby I knew,” said Madrigal through her tears. “He really helped unite that class. I didn’t know a Bobby who someone would want to kill—he was always smiling. This is not something that happens to this kind of kid.”

Madrigal added that Tang was an amazing kid, evidenced by the hundreds of friends who came to mourn his death.

“I loved Silver Creek, I loved the kids and I loved the staff. It was a very special place. This [tragic death] is not what it’s about,” said Madrigal.