Class of 2015-2016 graduate Harley Fetterman was seen all over campus mapping his way through the school with his cane. But during the summer the campus lost Fetterman as he lost his courageous battle to leukemia. Fetterman battled leukemia for 13 years and was diagnosed with a brain tumor at five years old.

Fetterman had a good sense of humor that English teacher Whitney Shumate and government and economics teacher Ruth Narvaiz enjoyed about him. He didn’t let his disability slow him down, they both said.

“Harley was always happy and it seemed like there were many things for him to be unhappy about but yet, he was always happy,” Narvaiz said. “On the first day of economics class with Harley we do a little activity where we rope of some of the chairs and so chairs were scarce. Harley came in late and  Harley was such a good sport about it. So he said, ‘You’re gonna make the blind kid stand up, well that’s fine I can stand,’ and he was just playing along.”

Shumate had Fetterman his freshman year for debate and his sophomore year for English.

“One thing I remember most about Harley was a time we were at Anderson high school for a debate tournament. Harley being blind and not mapping out the school with his cane really didn’t know where he was going. We found his room and he was just so confident and I was just so amazed that someone so young was speaking and competing the way he was.”

Fetterman’s passing was a shock to many people who knew him.

“I was really sad, he didn’t deserve to have this happen to him because he was just such a good person who had such a bright future ahead of him,” Narvaiz said.

For Shumate she wants to teach everyone what Fetterman taught her.

“I’ll never forget him. I’ll think about him as I continue to teach, and I’ll think about him as I raise my daughter in hopes of passing down what he ended up teaching me,” Shumate said.