Matthew Stewart Brennan

I met Matt in our freshman year of undergrad. We lived two or three doors down from each other up until our senior year, when everyone in our part of our dorm had to be relocated. During the first week of knowing him, I thought his name was Alex. As he passed by me in the hall -- "Hey Alex! How's it going?" He was too nice to correct me, and I didn't realize my mistake until my roommate pointed it out. Typical Matt. Throughout those years, I would run into Matt regularly in the hall late at night while we were both up studying. He always greeted me with a big smile and asked how I was doing. One time I was coming back from getting some candy from the vending machines, and he informed me that he could eat a whole bag of M&M's in just one gulp. I was amazed, and it was that type of exchange that would really brighten up an otherwise stressful night. I don't think you could be stressed out around Matt even if you tried. One of my fondest memories of undergrad was studying with Matt and our friends Vincent and Hussein late at night in our dorm. It was a windy night and we were sitting right next to a window with a big tree outside. Vincent, Hussein, and I were struggling through a problem set and it didn't look like we would finish. We were frustrated. All of a sudden the branches of the tree hit the window and startled us. Hussein sighed and stated that he wished he were a tree. Vincent looked up and said with conviction "That would be AWFUL!" Matt and I looked at each other and burst out laughing at the whole exchange. Matt had a way of making people feel comfortable and un-self-conscious when they were around him. As someone who used to be very shy, that really stood out to me and I admired him for it. For example, running into people at random would always cause me to panic out of fear that I wouldn't know what to say. But I didn't have to worry about that with Matt. His whole demeanor and personality just put me at ease. I can't really think of many other people that could do that.