‘He would always greet you and ask how you were’

Second-year commerce student Simon Deng died in Markham June 2

Friends say Simon Deng
Image supplied by: Supplied
Friends say Simon Deng

Simon Deng will be remembered as a hardworking, passionate student who had the ability to make everyone around him smile.

Deng, Comm ’11, died in his sleep at his home in Markham on June 2. His funeral was held on June 6.

Sammy Singh, Comm ’11, met Deng in first year when they lived on the same floor in Gordon House.

Deng spent a lot of time in the common room getting to know his floormates, he said.

“He really knew how to make the room more upbeat and happier.”

Singh and Deng shared a house with three other commerce students in second year.

“Whenever an exam would come by or an assignment, everyone would just be in stress mode, but we could always count on him to lighten the mood,” he said. “His passion was to enjoy the other aspects of life that aren’t always related to work and school, and I think that was a lesson that he taught me.

“One surprising thing I realized when I talked to him was that he never swore once, never cursed, never got mad or anything.”

Dylan Carr, Comm ’11, also lived on Deng’s floor in first year and said he will remember him as a dedicated musician who played the violin and tuba.

“In his first year he was taking a higher level composition class,” he said. “At the end of the semester, they perform their pieces, so then I went to go see him and it sounded really great.”

Carr said he never saw Deng in a bad mood.

“Even if he was always busy or working on something, he was still in a very good mood,” he said. “He would always greet you and ask how you were.”

Mensa Wang, Comm ’11, was in China when she received an e-mail from Deng’s father about his death.

She decided to create the Facebook group, ‘In Memory of Simon Deng,’ because she couldn’t attend the funeral, she said.

There are more than 900 people in the group.

“We were just shocked and a lot of us were all over the place so we couldn’t make it to the funeral,” she said. “We just really wanted a place to say something to him.”

Wang said she will miss the way Deng greeted everyone he met.

“Simon didn’t have a best friend because he was nice to everyone,” she said. “Everyone was his friend.”

Amber Wallace, School of Business external relations manager, said the School of Business will organize a memorial for Deng in the fall.

All final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances. If you have any grievances with this article, please direct your comments to journal_editors@ams.queensu.ca.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Skip to content