After losing a leg, Lloyd Eldred saw his dream come to life when his grandson, Weston, used farm equipment to build a 2-plus acre pond.

Weston’s grandfather stocked the pond with fish and went up to it nearly every day before he died.

The pond was one of many projects Weston tackled until his own death on April 2. Funeral services for Weston, a State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry student on leave, were held Saturday.

The cause of his death remains inconclusive, though it may be linked to pneumonia, said Weston’s father, Randy.

‘We buried him up at the pond, and he wanted to be buried next to his grandfather,’ Randy said. To fulfill Weston’s wish, his family plans to move the body of Weston’s grandfather from Owasco Cemetery to the pond.

Family members recall Weston as an ultimate problem solver, even at the age of 10, and a selfless student who loved to tutor others. He had planned to return to ESF this fall.

‘He was very giving, and to a fault almost,’ said his mother, Ellisa. ‘He would put other people before him all the time.’

After Weston started attending ESF in 2009, his mother convinced him to leave school temporarily to focus on his biodiesel project, she said. Weston started collecting vegetable oil nearly six years ago for the project, which would have allowed him to make quality biodiesel on a larger scale than he had before with previous projects. He was two months away from completing his latest project before his death.

Not even his parents understood the biodiesel project completely. But there wasn’t anything Weston couldn’t do or couldn’t fix, Randy said.

‘I taught him how to weld, and I’ve been welding for 30 years, and he can weld better than I can,’ Randy said.

Weston’s mother still remembers how he wrote chemistry books for leisure. Between the ages of 10 and 12, Weston also discovered a way to dry his hockey equipment by connecting a box to a furnace in the basement.

By those young childhood years, Weston had already become a problem solver, Randy said.

‘Actually, it was abnormal,’ he said. ‘I mean, I couldn’t compare how smart he was, and not because I’m his father saying that, he just — you don’t realize how intelligent he was.’

Weston started attending Cayuga Community College in 2003, six years before he enrolled at ESF. As Weston would later recall in his graduation speech at CCC, he left college to fulfill his grandfather’s dream of building the pond.

He returned to CCC in 2007 and discovered another passion a year later when he walked into the college’s Academic Support Center. He helped tutor someone in biology and continued tutoring from then on, allowing him to meet other teachers and students. Weston loved tutoring because it allowed him to help others, Randy said.

He graduated from CCC in 2009. His family has established a scholarship at the college in his memory.

CCC faculty were deeply saddened by Weston’s death, said Margaret Spillett,

director of public relations and institutional communications at the college, in an email.

‘By all accounts, he was an exceptionally gifted student and he touched the lives of many people here. Wes will be sorely missed,’ she said.

Individuals had written nearly 40 entries of their memories of Weston on his online Guest Book page by Monday night.

Ellisa said she has been approached by people she did not know, explaining how her son helped them. One girl told her she was made fun of in high school and Weston was the only person who was kind to her. The girl eventually left for the Army. When she came back, Weston reached out to her to give her connections and make her feel at home.

‘It didn’t matter who you are,’ Ellisa said. ‘He would help you, he would be compelled to help you.’

mcboren@syr.edu

 

Published on April 10, 2011 at 12:00 pm