i am so sad about this. i really hope that the families and friends of these young men will be ok. they will definately be in my thoughts. and mmcline, i will be thinking about you and your neighbors too. what a sad day!

Sign condolences
 

There is a place on the ATO national web site to leave a note of condolence on this terrible tragedy.

http://www.ato.org/ATO/INTERACT/GBMAIN.asp

My heart goes out to to all Ole Miss students, and especially the ATO fraternity members. I remember the Greeks there being supportive of one another. I know they will take care of each other now. :'-(

Patti
Ole Miss, 1979

how terribly sad...
my thoughts and prayers are with the families and the chapter members.

I am an Ole Miss alum and word traveled quickly to the members of our Ole Miss family. This is just so hard to heard and I really want to know the cause of the fire. Everyone had been really looking forward towards the first football game but I could see it being rescheduled like the one nearest 9/11. The ATO house is within eyeshot of the stadium and people usually park all around that area. I am not sure how the university will handle it.

Yesterday evening, I attended the vigil at The Paris-Yates Chapel on campus. It was a very solemn time and the men of ATO were there and I have never been so sad in my entire life. One of the men who died, Will Townsend, I met him a few times this summer through some of his alumni and he was a wonderful man, like all of the men who perished in the fire. However, it is so sad because Will went back into the ATO house to save his brothers. Will was the sort of guy who made you feel good, he made you laugh, and he had a head on his shoulders. (His father was also an ATO at Ole Miss)

There was also a candlelight vigil walk on campus last night that the Kappa Sigma's help sponsor and it was a very sad time. Today it is raining here in Oxford. On all of the local news channels last night the story was their top story...everytime I watched a different channel report (some were delayed because of the Olympics) I had to cry again.

The ATF is here to investigate and they said they should know what the cause of the fire was as soon as possible.

As far as the football game goes next weekend, I have not heard about it being cancelled yet but I can assure the spirits of Ole Miss alumni, students, and fans will not be the same next weekend.

I've lived in Oxford for 8 years (6 were for school) and I've never seen a tradegy like this hit our campus so hard.

Thank you for everyone keeping our Ole Miss community in their prayers and especially the men of Alpha Tau Omega.

My thoughts and Prayers to the Families and members.

jackson's clarion ledger has a nice article backgrounders on the boys who died - they all seemed like great kids.

Here is an article about Jordan.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news...nwilliams.html

The link is acting up. so i copied the article.

Jordan Lowell Williams of Atlanta, a 20-year-old sophomore majoring in accounting at the University of Mississippi, was remembered Friday as a "fun-loving" guy who enjoyed music and reading.

Williams, who lettered in wrestling at the Lovett School in Atlanta, joined ATO last spring after he'd transferred to Ole Miss from Mississippi State University.

He was the only son of James and Patricia Williams of Sandy Springs.

Al Bell, adviser to the ATO fraternity chapter, said Williams' fraternity brothers did not want to comment to the media but that they spoke highly of him.

"They did say that Jordan was a real fun-loving, laid-back guy," Bell said. "As soon as they met him during rush, they said they knew they wanted him" as a fraternity member.

A family friend recalled Friday night that Williams loved music and had wide-ranging taste, enjoying genres from classical to rock.

"He was a voracious reader" who loved the classics, said Rodger Johnson, 56, of Sandy Springs.

Johnson, who was with Williams' grieving parents Friday night, said he and Williams would sometimes race to see who could read a book faster.

"He was just a super, super, super kid," Johnson said. "I remember my daughter baby-sitting for him."

The family, Johnson said, is "relying on their faith right now."

Johnson noted that the Williams house was a favorite place to relax for Jordan and his friends, often in the basement the family had finished to accommodate them.

"He was just a good kid, with good friends and a great value system," Johnson said. "We're going to miss him."

Williams had returned to school only about a week ago. He enjoyed the atmosphere at Ole Miss and talked about hanging out in the "Grove," the popular wooded gathering spot on campus for football game weekends. He was planning to attend graduate school.

I'm really sorry to hear about that. My thoughts and prayers are with the brothers of ATO and the familiy members of those who lost thier lives.

mmcline, I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your neighbor and friend. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the families affected by this.

May you remember how Jordan lived, not how he died.

To all those at Ole Miss or with links to the young men who died, I express my sympathies. I have no links to Ole Miss or any of the three who died, but I feel so sad about it. What a brave young man he was to literally give his life trying to save his friends.

I really hope this puts the need for a sprinkler system at the forefront. Such a tragedy.

What a horrible tragedy...they will be in my thoughts as well as their families, fraternity brothers, and all those at Ole Miss.

mmcline, your neighbors will especially be in my thoughts, I can
only imagine what is must be like for a parent to lose a child but their only child as well.



Going into my senior year two years ago, my sorority house received a sprinkler system which ate up the whole year's budget for the house improvements. I remember many of us complaining that it was unneccessary and we wanted the living room redone and a new big-screen T.V. instead since it was not mandated by the university yet. This tragedy really puts things in perspective and what horrible things can happen...

I was in Oxford over the weekend and I have to say the pics of the house don't really show how bad this fire was. The whole top story is almost completely gone.

The ATO housemother used to stay at our house when our housemother was out of town. She came by our house friday morning and said that Will Townshend had gone back in to make sure she was safe and he helped her get out safely... and then went back in again to try to help his other friends and never came out.

We ran into an ATO brother that we knew and they are leaning on each other. He said that lastnight they all went back over to the house and sat on the back patio talking of good times with the friends they lost.

I also heard that the ATO house had a small fire about 2 years ago that was caused be some kind of electrical problem, but I'm not sure if this is true. The whole campus is devastated by this tragedy & my prayers go out to all who were affected.