KU aerospace engineering student who died in car crash ‘just loved hard,’ mother says | News, Sports, Jobs


photograph by: Contributed

From left, Jeremy Alkire, Grant Lysell-Alkire, Sawyer Lysell-Alkire, and Ericka Lysell are pictured in the course of a latest relatives excursion.

A KU aerospace engineering scholar who died in a car accident in central Kansas just days in advance of Christmas was passionate about lab do the job and weightlifting and acknowledged for his uplifting identity, his mom informed the Journal-Globe on Friday.
“He was the buzz man,” Ericka Lysell said of her son Grant Logan Lysell-Alkire. “I generally teased him that he experienced an engineering mind but a social worker heart.”
On Dec. 21, Grant, 21, and his brother Sawyer, 16, have been coming again from a vacation to Salina, which is about 15 miles north of their hometown of Lindsborg. Ericka mentioned the climate experienced started to switch bad at all over 9:15 p.m., and her husband, Jeremy Alkire, termed Grant and Sawyer to warn them about the climate, but acquired no response.
At about the similar time as he termed, the brothers’ 2003 Mazda Tribute SUV overturned into the ditch on Interstate 135, just brief of the exit to Lindsborg, according to the Kansas Highway Patrol’s crash logs.
Ericka explained that Sawyer, who was driving, endured some damaged bones in his hand and that Grant, in the passenger seat, died on impression.
“They have been nearly dwelling,” she explained.
The vehicle arrived to a cease 100 ft off the highway, according to the crash logs. Ericka explained Sawyer, who was barefoot, managed to crawl through the window and more than a barbed wire fence and flag down a passing motorist from Lindsborg, who called 911.
“We never know how he did it,” Ericka claimed. “He was operating barefoot down the interstate in an ice storm.”
She explained that ahead of the brothers remaining Lindsborg that working day, Grant experienced insisted that Sawyer travel, saying that he necessary a lot more observe driving on the interstate. Right after the incident, Sawyer explained to Ericka that they ended up going about 75 mph and accomplishing great, but then they slid off the slick highway.
“He (Sawyer) is better, bodily, but it is just a full other process that he is going to have to go by means of now,” Ericka claimed.
Grant Logan Lysell-Alkire
Ericka mentioned Grant was an eager scholar in the aerospace engineering application at KU and aspired to at some point perform at the rocket and spacecraft company SpaceX. He was in the middle of his junior calendar year at KU, and his beloved place to be was in the lab in the engineering constructing, she explained.
“He was always just wicked intelligent,” Ericka claimed. “We don’t know in which his brains came from. My partner is a very little far more like that, but I’m a social worker I really do not get the math and science stuff.”
When Shawn Keshmiri, an aerospace engineering professor at KU and one of Grant’s mentors, listened to of Grant’s death, he sent a message to Grant’s roommate that said: “I am so devastated and heartbroken and are unable to feel we misplaced these types of a form soul.”
“I experienced acknowledged Grant due to the fact his freshman calendar year when he was my advisee,” Keshmiri wrote, adding that “seeing his type and curious experience was just one of the very best factors about our AE-550 classes.”
Kashmiri advised the Journal-Earth Friday that Grant was “loved by all of his peers and professors” and he “can’t think they will have to start off the spring semester with no him.”
In addition to science, Grant cherished weightlifting and would generally function out at the KU Rec Middle, Ericka reported.
“In high university, football was his existence, but his major point was weightlifting. He liked to elevate. That was his passion,” she stated.
Grant’s father, Jeremy, stated that Grant generally was attempting to recruit his close friends to join him at the gym and would do his finest to aid them and persuade their successes. Ericka stated Grant’s roommate informed her that Grant created him feel at household soon after he moved from out of condition to go to KU.
Grant was also a KU sporting activities lover and attended every KU soccer household sport this time, and Ericka stated she could think about him cheering the workforce on in the course of its bowl match versus Arkansas on Thursday night time.
Back in Lindsborg, Grant was regarded as a part product and mentor to some community kids, Ericka claimed.
“He experienced the most caring coronary heart,” she reported. “He experienced taken on these neighborhood little ones when he was a lifeguard at the pool. They ended up constantly finding kicked out of the pool, but he would convey to them to come back again tomorrow and try out all over again. The very last four yrs we experienced Xmas with all those little ones. It broke their hearts when he went off to college,” she reported.
Now, Grant’s spouse and children hopes to honor his caring spirit by creating a fund to support kids in the Lindsborg place. In lieu of flowers, the relatives is inquiring for donations to help set up the fund.
“He just liked hard,” Ericka mentioned. “He loved his close friends and loved ones so considerably.”
A visitation for Grant will be held at 5 p.m. Jan. 6 at the American Legion in Lindsborg, followed by a memorial company at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 7.





