Aaron Schoepf in the role of Eddie Birdlace in the Players spring 2024 production of “Dogfight”.
@PLAYERSMU/INSTAGRAM
Grace Cardinal, Editor-in-Chief
Aaron Schoepf, a junior at Manhattan University, suddenly passed away on Thursday, April 3 at 21 years old. In his time at MU, Schoepf was a highly recognized presence on campus, involved in the performing arts, the Pride Center, the English department and beyond.
Schoepf graduated in 2022 from Washingtonville High School in Washingtonville, NY. He began at MU in fall of 2022, as an English major, adding minors in music and theatre. Schoepf immediately became involved in the performing arts upon joining the MU community, something he was highly involved with in his high school years as well. Schoepf’s presence in the performing arts was felt monumentally, and the hole he left even moreso.
“I can speak on the impact, because now there’s a gaping hole in the community, and when someone has a huge impact, and then they leave, there’s a crater left behind,” Andrew Bauer, director of performing arts, said. “So we are experiencing in performing arts now this crater, and what we can do is that we can fill that crater with the love that he brought, and all of our experiences with Aaron, and that will be eventually filled, and there will be beauty left where that gaping hole is right now.”
An on-campus memorial service was held in honor of Schoepf and his family in the Chapel of De La Salle and His Brothers on Friday, April 4. Classes were suspended for an hour to allow students to attend, grieve and show their support for such a loved individual. Schoepf’s mother, Marcella “Mama” Schoepf, wrote a note in her absence that was read at the service by Vice President of Student Life Kristell Lowe. The letter was shared with The Quadrangle.
“I want to express my regret for not being able to join you today to remember Aaron,” Schoepf’s mother’s note began. “I am overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and love you have so generously given him throughout his time here at Manhattan University. The classrooms, halls, and stages of this campus have been a welcoming place of warm fellowship, unconditional acceptance, and beautiful friendships for Aaron. He felt a true connection to this community and I am deeply grateful to you for being such an important part of his life.”
The note concluded, “Please join me to celebrate and hold dear precious memories of his passion for the theater, his creative and thoughtful writing, and especially the songs he held in his heart and shared with all of us. With gratitude, Marcella “Mama” Schoepf.”
Rocco Marinaccio, Ph.D., the department chairperson of liberal learning, English professor and advisor for the Pride Center and Rainbow Jaspers, worked closely with Schoepf in his time on campus. He fondly remembers Schoepf for being “gigantically energetic” and for the intelligence, poise and honesty he brought to everything he took on.
“One thing that I will say is I have been teaching here for 29 years, and in my career, for 44 years, I’ve been on this campus when there were other tragic passings of students,” Marinaccio said. “I was on this campus when the towers went down, and I have never seen such an outpouring of grief in my life until now. I just think he was beloved and so embedded in our community. I think that his spirit and kindness and humor and talent and intelligence left a great mark on a lot of people.”
Schoepf, while well-known for his energetic presence on stage, was known by those close to him as a friend whose door was always open with arms ready to give a hug. As an RA in Horan Hall, Schoepf was known for making sure students felt safe and welcome, while always letting anyone pet his cat when they needed it.
Ashley Karlosky, president of Rainbow Jaspers, worked closely with Schoepf at the campus’s Pride Center.
“Everybody will probably tell you about his hugs and how amazing they are, and how he would literally just hug you so hard, you never wanted it to end,” Karlosky said. “He never let go before you did. How he hugged people was how he existed in this world. He wouldn’t let go until he felt you were ready to let go.”
Schoepf’s energy on campus was undeniable. Fellow Players member and close friend of Schoepf’s Grace Coutu spoke of his impact in all areas of campus and life.
“He was such a presence everywhere he went,” Coutu said. “Everyone’s been saying this, and it’s so cliche, but it’s very true. He was such a light, just like a little ball of sunshine everywhere he went, but you couldn’t ignore him when he came in a room and he gave so much to everything.”
Schoepf served as a role model to many.
“He’s everything that I strive to be,” Karlosky said. “You can see his impact everywhere on campus. [The] last two weeks, you really are shown just how much space you take up when you’re here, regardless of how involved you are. He was so caring and so passionate about everything that he did, and you see that everybody knew it, everybody loved it, and it’ll be missed.”
Across The Quadrangle’s interviews, one memory of Schoepf continued to pop up. In the MU Players’ spring musical in 2024, Schoepf played the leading role of Eddie Birdlace in Dogfight. The performance was memorable for all who saw it on campus, and the complexity with which Schoepf embodied the character was one that will live on in infamy.
“He carried that show, and he was extraordinary in it, that a 20 year old could have such insight and such expressive capability was kind of a revelation to me,” Marinaccio said. “That just blew me away. What he did was a revelation of his own tremendous talent. And I think also, him standing there as a trans man in that role just added a level of power and complexity. He just blew doors [off] in Dogfight. I can still see him on stage.”
Bauer, who gave private voice lessons to Schoepf and worked with him one on one throughout his time in performing arts, was consistently blown away with the raw emotion Schoepf brought to everything he did, both on and off the stage.
“From the roles that he played, he really engrossed himself in the character and the task at hand, learning, memorizing all those lines,” Bauer said. “He was very good at coming through at the end and always learning everything that had to be learned. He brought that joy, you could see it from the characters that he played, but he was the same on stage as he was off stage in terms of his buoyancy and that radiating enthusiasm. Often people act, and they become a different persona, and they’re very different in their private lives…but when you saw Aaron, you knew what you were going to get. He was always predictably in a great mood, no matter what struggle was going on.”
A week after his passing, campus continues to bustle with ways to honor Aaron, from prayer groups and grief sessions to memorial concerts and beyond.
“One gift that Aaron has given us is that when you see how people have come together since his passing, this community that loved him has been incredibly loving and supportive and understanding of each other,” Marinaccio said. “Since his passing, I think the community that you form around you, tells us about you, but that also tells us about the rest of us. And so I think it’s a gift to us that we’re reminded not only what he meant to us, but what we actually go on to mean towards each other.”
Bauer hopes that those grieving will hold onto the positive energy Schoepf left behind on MU’s campus.
“Everybody loved the guy,” Bauer said. “I never heard a bad word either from him about anybody or anybody about him. There was very little negativity surrounding him. So that crater, I think, is the image that we have, and we do have to fill that crater, because while we are grieving, we don’t want to become grief.”
For any students looking for additional support, the Counseling Center has drop-in hours available in Miguel Hall, Room 501. Appointments can also be made with the center by email at jegan01@manhattan.edu or (718) 862-7394. At this time, Campus Ministry in Cornerstone is also open to support students who need it.