A Life Well Lived
The Court Demas Memorial Endowment
December 11, 1972 - July 28, 2002
Heifer Foundation is privileged to have recently received funds establishing The Court Demas Memorial Endowment. Court was - how does one summarize pages and pages of "love letters" and tributes? - a very special person: smart, gentle, passionate…He and a friend were murdered while hiking in the Andes Mountains. As we have learned this young man's story, we have been inspired by the way he lived, saddened by the way he died, and reminded that it is possible for one person's goodness to be felt around the world.
The more we read about Court, the more we think he would be pleased by this endowment and the purposes it serves. He truly lived the cornerstones of Heifer, such as sharing, caring, and believing in the goodness of others and our connectedness to the earth. And just as recipients of Heifer animals "pass on the gift" of a young cow or goat or duck to a neighbor, so, too, did Court "pass on the gift" of joy and hope and love as he traveled the earth.
The words of Court's mother and friends, taken from the
program created for his memorial service, follow:
My
son, Court Demas, came into the world the morning of December
11, 1972, at Valley Hospital in Ridgewood, New Jersey,
weighing in at 9 lbs. 4-1/2 oz. He joined his two-year
old sister, Lisa, whom he adored instantly.
Court developed an intense interest in computers when he was very young and loved math (he gave one wrong answer on his math SAT). His other interests while growing up included Boy Scouts, Chess, a few years of piano and violin lessons, camping and soccer. He's been an avid reader all his life. Court attended Ramsey High School, which he completed in three years by taking college courses. While in high school, he was in the Marching Band, playing baritone saxophone. Court was a band fag, a computer geek, brilliant, popular, and a cut-up -hard to categorize.
Court attended RPI and then transferred to Carnegie Mellon
University his sophomore year and joined Phi Kappa Theta.
Although he was a few credits shy of a degree in Math
and Computer Science from CMU, he was hired to work in
their Robotics Institute. (While there, he created a Java
Tutorial and presented it at a conference in New Zealand
at age 23.) He stayed with the Robotics Institute in Pittsburgh
through 1996. He was hired by Trilogy in Austin, Texas
in January 1997 and then by Kiwi Consulting in San Francisco
in March 1999 where he lived until his move to Prague
in February 2001. He then became a consultant for Komera
and was able to work remotely from his laptop, allowing
him to pursue his love of travel.
Over his lifetime, Court visited St. Croix, Mexico, Italy,
including Sicily and Sardinia, New Zealand, England, France,
Germany, Amsterdam, Prague, Nambia, South Africa, Brazil,
Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Bolivia and Peru. He also
traveled extensively in the United States (Grand Canyon,
Arizona, Indiana, Nevada, Washington State, Washington
DC, California from LA to San Francisco and north.) While
overseas, Court learned a bit of Czech and learned to
read and write Spanish while in South America. During
his travels, he enjoyed living among the locals and avoided
American tourists. He loved to dance, and the last time
he was home (a surprise visit in January 2002 during his
maternal grandmother's 90th birthday party), he and I
danced the Salsa. Court loved the outdoors and enjoyed
hiking, climbing, snorkeling and scuba diving.
Court
had a special way with women - he loved them and they
loved him. He was very respectful of women. He was gallant
and chivalrous. While not ready for a permanent relationship,
Court had several meaningful relationships with women
during his life. He was honorable, honest and loving with
his partners.
Most recently, Court was in Peru trekking in the Andes with Raquel Paredes, whom he had met while hiking in Ecuador a few months before. He was due home to New Jersey around July 29 to have a short visit and go on to attend the weddings of friends on the west coast. He was reported missing August 1 and an intense search effort for the couple began. All those involved with the search effort worked tirelessly for over one month (including his father, George Demas). Sadly, the bodies of Court and Raquel were found on September 2, two days after George returned home. They had been killed and robbed according to the Peruvian police.
We all hoped until the very end for another outcome,
of course. To think of Court's having died this way is
so incomprehensible; he was such a generous, sweet, peaceful
individual who would gladly have given anyone anything
they desired. For such a gentle life to have ended with
violence is heartwrenching.
To Donate to the Court Demas Memorial Endowment Endowment, please visit www.HopeEquity.com
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