Thompson resident Ryan M. Morin was just 31 years old when met his fate in the fire that destroyed not merely the physical structure of the Station Night Club in West Warrick, R.I. on February 20 , 2003  but also the lives of survivors and family members who lost brothers, sisters, moms and dads.

Morin no longer walks the earth, but his spirit flies high through friends, family members and neighbors. 

Morin left behind many cherished people, including his girlfriend, Jodi Zides of Newton, Mass, who he intended to marry after returning from a trip to New Zealand.

His parents, Paul A. Morin, who taught at Thompson Middle School, and Susan Morin, both of Thompson, lost their only child in the inferno.  One hundred people lost their lives when a member of the band Great White set off a gerb – a device used to emit an array of sparks.  Soundproofing foam behind the stage instantly caught fire, and in the ensuing stampede, approximately one quarter of the patrons were trampled as people rushed toward the exits.

It was the deadliest fire in America since a 1977 blaze killed 165 patrons at a supper club in Southgate, Ky. 

Nearly three years later Susan easily recalls the moment she discovered her son may have been one of the victims.

Susan said she was on the highway when her cell phone rang.  A coworker of Ryan’s at Guardent, now known as Veri-Sign, called, informing her Ryan was not at work, and had visited the nightclub the night before with several friends.  “He went out with four of his coworkers” she said “and only two got out.  That building went up in flames so fast.”

Despite her grief, which she said she still carries, Susan now prefers to remember the positive aspects of Ryan’s life.  “This is the first year I can stand up on my own and face it in reality,” she said, “and deal with that part of my life that is grief.” Susan said she prefers to remember Ryan “standing at my door with a big smile on his face and a bag of laundry for me to do.  It was sunshine standing in the door.”

After graduating from Tourtellotte Memorial High School in 1989, Ryan attended Southern Connecticut State College, graduating in 1993.  There, he met Kevin W. Brown, who much like Ryan, had an affinity for travel and excitement.  The two of them, Susan said, became fast friends.  “Ryan traveled considerably,” she said.  “Bungee jumping in Mexico, skiing and horseback riding in Northern Canada, mountain climbing and kayaking in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia, and exploring the wilds of Australia and Cabo San Lucas.”

Brown, who is on vacation in Peru, said in an email, he along with Ryan and Scott Novak, were kicked out of a hotel in Cancun for “too much partying” during spring break.  After that “our friendship developed into a tight bond that snowballed over the years.”

On Sunday, November 6^th, Brown ran in the New York City Marathon in Ryan’s name to raise money for Shriners’ Burn Children’s Unit and the American Cancer Society.  He completed the race in just a little over four hours.

His reason for raising funds was simple.  Shriners’ he said, took many of the victims of the fire. The memory of the victims was also an inspiration during the event. 

“I had pinned ribbons with the names of people in my life who have passed away,” he said.  “With these ribbons pinned to my back, I would think they helped push me forward when my body felt like it could not take another step.”

 Brown also created a Web site dedicated to Ryan’s memory – to raise money for burn victims:  www.ry2k.org.

A friend in Minnesota, Chad Hatfield, also created a Web site, www.ryan-fest.com to remember his friend.

While many Web sites have been dedicated for various reasons since the Internet’s inception, a great many of them fall by the wayside after several months, perhaps after even a year, as owners find less time to update them or as memories fade.

The sites mentioned above still go strong, with current updates and comments from people who never knew Ryan, but feel the need to remark on the circumstances of his death, and even because they have something in common.

Ryan, his mom said, was a huge Van Halen fan, so much so that he won a contest from a radio station in Rhode Island for naming 15 Van Halen songs.  The station, Susan said, played two or three second snippets of each song and Ryan was the first to identify all of them correctly.  His prize:  an all expense-paid  trip to a Penthouse Magazine party in New York City and a private concert with Tommy Lee, just one month before Ryan passed away.  Brown tagged along and called the trip his “most memorable” event.  “It was a great experience for both of us because it allowed us to share our thoughts of getting older and what the future might bring, Brown said.

On the ryan-fest Web site, is a comment from Bryan Elliot, of Belfast, Northern Ireland.  It reads, “I have just read about ryan-fest.com at a Van Halen fan site and just wanted to say the story of Ryan really touched me and that I am so glad that Michael Anthony and Eddie Van Halen were able to do something small for him.  I’m sure he is delighted! Anyway, everyone at VHLinks.com is thinking of him…Keep up the good work.”

While visiting a customer, Susan said she saw a car pull up in front of her with a license plate that left no doubt the driver was a Van Halen fan.  It turned out the car belonged to the son of the customer.  She spoke with the pair and gave the son the web site address.  He spread the word and the site received more than 500 hits the following week.

When Eddie Van Halen and Michael Anthony learned of Ryan’s death, and his love for the band’s music, Anthony sent a personal promotional vinyl single of the song ‘Dreams.’  Anthony wrote the following note on the back of the record jacket:  I’m sorry that this arrives too late for Ryan’s life celebration but I did not hear about or read your email until today.  Reading that our song ‘Dreams’ was to be the exiting song at the celebration, I remembered that I had this copy of the single and wanted you to have it.  I can’t tell you how sad it makes me feel that because of someone’s negligence and ignorance, a tragic event like this could happen.  My sincere condolences – I know Ryan’s up there rockin VH Style!!  Van Halen also sent a signed photo.  Unfortunately,

The record was broken during shipping, which Susan called ironic, given the lyrics to the song, which at one point says, “standing on broken dreams.”

In addition to Brown running the marathon, a golf tournament has been held each year in Morin’s name, also to raise funds for burn victims of the fire.  This past year, Brown also flew to Florida to pick a car purchased by the father of Gina Gauvin, one of the survivors, and drove it to Rhode Island to deliver it to her.   The tournament was held at the Hartford Golf Course this year.

When the time came to mourn Ryan’s loss, Susan said she had a celebration of life for him, rather than a wake.  “Everyone celebrated what he did, rather than the fact that he was gone,” she said.  “During the celebration we played Van Halen songs.”

Nearly 500 people attended the celebration, she added.  After the celebration, Susan spread some of Ryan’s ashes at Higgins Beach in Maine, and on the anniversary of the fire, she traveled again to Maine to toss a dozen roses into the surf. 

Even now she said, friends of Ryan still call on her, and take her to dinner or call to say hello.  “He has five or six friends who call me mom,” she said.

Today Ryan’s name still lives on, as several of his friends have named children after him.  Michael and Jill Gillette of Chicago, IL. named their son Ryan Daniel.  Scott and Rhonda Novak of Quincy named their son Andrew Ryan Novak, and more recently Tom and Karoline Naum of Aldie, VA. named their son Alexander Ryan Naum. 

Brown believes people do not truly appreciate their friends until they are gone from their lives.  But Ryan’s spirit, Brown said, is still with him.  “I feel he has influenced me more now than he did when he was alive,” Brown said in his email.  “He was always like a younger brother to me.  It was not until I reflected on what was missing from my life and how he was as a person did I truly understand what had been lost.  Sue and I are very tight now and a good support system for each other.  She has lost heaps more than I could imagined, so I try to be there as a friend who appreciates her loss and respects it.”

For Susan, it is still tough waking up in the morning, but her memories get her through the day.  “That keeps me going,” Susan said.  “It brings back the good memories, rather than the night of the fire.”