2022 LSU Gumbo - Book - Page 114
Remembrance
LSU is mourning the death of mechanical
engineering senior Justin Fields after a fatal car
accident on Jan. 30 at the intersection of Burbank
Drive and Ben Hur Road. He turned 22 the day of the
incident.
Fields was born and raised in Baton Rouge, where
he graduated from Parkview Baptist High School.
Throughout high school, Fields was in the jazz band
and robotics team. He played in the Tiger Marching
band during his freshman year at LSU and knew how
to play the saxophone, clarinet and piano.
Mechanical engineering senior Kevin Cruz was
best friends with Fields since their freshman year of
high school where they served on the robotics team
together. Cruz remembers Fields’ selflessness, joy and
energy.
“We were really brothers. He was essentially part of
my day-to-day life,” Cruz said.
Fields was heavily active on the LSU campus. He
served as the lead power train engineer on the LSU
Tiger Racing Formula Team, an honorable leadership
position. Each year, the team builds a race car to
outperform other universities’ race cars in worldwide
competitions.
“Justin was definitely one of the most
knowledgeable people [on the team], if not the most
knowledgeable,” Cruz said.
Once a person got to know Fields, they could
see him blossom, Cruz said. Cruz appreciates the
many memories and mini-adventures he and Fields
completed over their eight-year friendship.
Biological engineering senior Carley Bajon was
Fields’ and said he was good at everything, and there
wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.
“He was so calm with everybody,” Bajon said. “He
never got mad. He was just so sweet and caring and just
wanted to see everyone do well in life.”
Bajon remembers how Fields would always
encourage her when she needed the motivation to
finish homework assignments and class projects. She
was impacted by how proud he would be of her when
they studied together.
“When it comes down to him as a person, no one
dislikes Justin, and he didn’t dislike anyone,” Bajon
said.
Physics freshman Adrianne Bajon, Carley’s little
sister, was a friend to Justin. Adrianne described how
well Fields fit in with the Bajon family. Fields often
attended vacations with the family, which allowed him
to bond even more with them.
“LSU definitely lost one of the smartest, most driven
and one of the most successful people that would come
from LSU,” Adrianne said.
Adrianne described his love for space and aerospace
engineering. A huge fan of SpaceX and Elon Musk,
Fields’ passion fueled him toward landing an
internship with a NASA contracting company in the
summer of 2021.
“His main love was space,” Adrianne said. “He loved
it so much. All he wanted to do was go to space.”
Adrianne bought a star and named it “Boy and Girl”
to honor the relationship between her sister, Carley,
and Justin. She described the star on an Instagram post
as:
“Girl and Boy always together in space, just where
Justin always wished he could go.”
Biological engineering senior Victoria Byrd was
a friend of Fields and said he was “over the moon”
when he got his NASA internship. Even with his
achievements, he was never one to brag, Byrd said.
“Justin had a beautiful mind,” said Byrd. “He really
had the ability to just look at a problem and know how
to answer it in minutes.”
Bickering like true brother and sister, Byrd recalls
the many bittersweet days when Fields stole her
lunchtime snacks during high school. They fought like
siblings, but looking back, she cherished the memories.
“He was a snacky person, but he’s a boy so you know
how boys just always forget to bring snacks? Anytime
he would see me, ‘What’s in your lunchbox?’ like every
time,” Byrd said.
Page by Gabe Henderson
Stories by Maddie Scott & Domenic Purdy