In front of a podium adorned with yellow, red and purple flowers, the UF community honored the life of Abby Dougherty.
Several spoke, telling stories that brought laughs and memories that brought tears. They reminisced about her smile, her need for adventure and her love of sunsets.
Her father, Pat Dougherty, a Florida State University alumnus, sat in the front row, wearing a khaki UF cap and an orange Gators T-shirt to honor his daughter. He and about 20 of Abby’s family members were among about 200 who gathered in the Reitz Union Rion Ballroom for the UF memorial Monday night. After, those gathered had a candlelit processional to the Field and Fork Food Pantry, where a memorial plaque will be put up in Abby’s honor.
Applied physiology and kinesiology professor Demetra Christou begins to cry outside of UF’s Field and Fork Food Pantry as she speaks about her former student, Abby Dougherty, who was killed by a garbage truck on Oct. 28.
Dougherty, a 20-year-old applied physiology and kinesiology senior, was killed Oct. 28 by a garbage truck while riding her bicycle north of campus. During the ceremony, Abby was remembered as someone who helped hundreds as a member of Campus Diplomats, an employee of the Field and Fork Food Pantry and a yoga instructor at UF RecSports.
Dr. Josie Ahlgren, Abby’s anatomy and physiology professor, said Abby didn’t originally know what she wanted to major in at UF. When she declared an exploratory major her freshman year, she was asked to write down why for a survey.
“I’m just a youngin’ trying to figure out where I want life to take me,” Abby, then 18, wrote. “How can I know what career path I want when I haven’t experienced or seen half of what life has to offer? No pressure.”
But she wanted to use her degree to help others, she told her anatomy and physiology lab teaching assistant on a card he had Abby and her peers fill out to tell him a bit about themselves.
On it, Abby also shared her spirit animal. A sea turtle, she wrote, because “it is both majestic and bada--.”
“A girl after my own heart,” Ahlgren said.
Despite her smiles and bubbly attitude, Abby still had her struggles, her aunt Rosanne Cicanese said. But through her involvement in yoga at RecSports, she was learning how to cope with stress and let go of anger.
But seeing Abby upset was a rarity, friends said. Jake Kilgore, a 20-year-old UF business administration junior, said Abby was strong and positive and helped others be the same — something she succeeded in.
“Live your life in a way that would make her proud,” he said. “If we can all do that, then we can turn this world into a place that can honor her memory forever and ever.”
Ashley St. Charles, a 20-year-old political science and international studies junior, stands surrounded by her fellow Campus Diplomats as they remember former member Abby Dougherty. “All I can remember was just her laughing and smiling,” St. Charles said of the last memory she has of Dougherty.
