Raunak Pednekar ’17

Friend

He was a Physics major, was Willie Zuniga, but one who took a bunch of Chemistry classes with me. The one I won’t forget is p-chem lab. He was my partner all semester

8 hours a week for 14 weeks we spent all our time within a few feet of each other in that crummy old lab. Well, most of it. We would take a “short” coffee break every lab session where we would inexplicably — and much to the amusement of other lab members — disappear for 20 odd minutes midway through lab to steal coffee from Parsons. 

I don’t remember everything we talked about on our routine sojourns. I do remember marveling at how one could smile so widely while drinking piping hot coffee

Raunak Pednekar ’17

Friend

It was freshman year and we were two days away from classes beginning. I got an email from Prof Yong asking me to meet with him because I hadn’t completed the summer math assignment. School hadn’t begun yet and I was a problem set behind.

I was walking to the Shan, dreading the embarrassing meeting that was about to take place. As I got closer to the stairway, I noticed another figure making his way up too. Maybe this poor dude hadn’t done his homework either? He turned around to reveal a beaming face. “Crap”, I thought- “That’s not the face of someone who hasn’t done his homework”.

But it was. It was Willie Zuniga’s face. A face that would go on to provide comfort to many others over the next three years. He was among the first friends I made here. The meeting that afternoon was much better, kinder and warmer for having Willie in it. 

Many of our lives undoubtedly have been too.

Bob Cave

Professor in two classes

I worked with Willie in pchem and pchem lab during Fall 2014. He was a leader in lab and a hard worker in the class who loved applying physics to understand chemistry. In class and in my office he was always positive, always smiling. He was a sweet, gentle person who was delight to be with. And when I saw him in following semesters he was that same person – kind, friendly, and supportive. What a loss.

Dan McCabe ’17

I didn’t know Willie very well, but I was hoping that I would get to in my last semester. Every time we passed each other on campus, he would greet me with the most genuine smile and say hello, even though I can’t remember us ever having a conversation. Something about these brief interactions was really uplifting and it was impossible not to smile in return, and to keep smiling afterwards.

I miss having Willie around to brighten my day. I hope that as a community we can embrace the characteristics that made him so loved and honor his memory by doing our best to make those around us smile through gestures big and small, and appreciating the people who do that for us.

Jason Gallicchio

In June, the Pomona Armature Astronomy Club invited students and I to Mount Wilson, where Hubble made many of his ground-breaking discoveries about the existence of galaxies outside of our own, the enormous size of the universe, and its expansion. Willie was there. I brought binoculars to look at stars and planets while we were on the mountain. Willie knew more about how to find interesting things that I did.