Cody kneels in front of the Sigma Alpha Mu rock at the apartment on Groveland Avenue on the day he moved in, August 2005

Cody was a sophomore at NC State University majoring in Mechanical Engineering. He spent his freshman year on campus in Sullivan Hall but pledged the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity in the Spring of 2005. He was invited to join the organization and moved into the fraternity housing located on Groveland Avenue in Raleigh, directly across from campus. The house was a duplex apartment that was not officially recognized as a fraternity house. (Low membership had forced the fraternity to move off campus.) Each side of the dwelling housed four fraternity brothers, with one living in the basement on each side and three occupying rooms on the second floors.

In the early morning hours of October 7, 2005, a fire erupted in the house and spread quickly up the stairs on Cody's side of the house. The fire department arrived at 6:30 a.m. to find the house engulfed in flames. Cody and another young man were trapped on the second floor and both died from smoke inhalation.

Cody's Room


Friends & students leave flowers on the rock


The same house after the fire

Cody marched to the beat of a drum most of us never heard. He lived a straight edge life, refusing to participate in alcohol consumption, drug use or smoking cigarettes. He did not buckle under peer pressure and he did not judge the people around him who chose a different way of life. His main concern was their safety. He was always available for them as a driver or a confidant, whatever was needed.

He attended NC School of Science and Math his junior and senior years of high school and knew that academia was his strong point. Attending NC State was a golden opportunity that he appreciated and thrived at. He was proud and thrilled to be invited to join Sigma Alpha Mu and could not wait to join his brothers at the fraternity house. As parents, we were pleased and proud as well that he had bloomed into a sensitive, happy, industrious young man.