Connor McCasland was never without a smile. His infectious happiness and excitement was a source of joy to those around him, and friends often sought his presence to relieve the stress and homesickness found in college. McCasland never hesitated to place others first — a trait friends and family say he lived above all else.
McCasland grew up in California and heard of Texas A&M through his dad, a former student. Casey Hudgson, supply chain management senior, met McCasland during the Corps of Cadets Freshman Orientation Week. They became close friends, but Hudgson said McCasland’s personality stood out to her during their first difficult days adjusting to Corps life.
“Connor was just really funny because he was one of the only ones that [didn’t seem] nervous and just went up to all of us and said, ‘Hi, I’m fish McCasland, nice to meet you,’” Hudgson said. “He’s from California and didn’t know anyone, but he just jumped right in there and was excited to be with all of us while everyone else was kind of awkward.”
It was this outgoing personality and the ease with which he made every situation seem humorous that McCasland’s friends remember well. Karissa Robertson, engineering technology senior and McCasland’s childhood friend, said one of her favorite memories of McCasland came during their freshmen year in a rough part of training.
“He’d be across the hall making faces at myself and my roommate while we were trying to not get yelled at,” Robertson said. “The upperclassmen would be trying to talk to us about something and we’d be standing in our doorways, and he’d keep making weird faces at us to try and get us to laugh and get in trouble.”
Cody Scarborough, psychology senior and McCasland’s roommate for a time, said their dorm would often fill with people seeking McCasland’s help. Whether science homework or simple advice, McCasland never turned them away.
McCasland made it a point to find a way to help others, no matter the situation. Scarborough described a rough part of Corps physical training where McCasland’s best quality was made apparent.
“We were doing an exercise program, they had us doing sit-ups,” Scarborough said. “We had been doing a real heavy workout for probably 15 minutes. Whenever we were doing these sit-ups, we got to the point where there was one of our buddies who was really struggling with the sit-ups. He just came over and said, ‘Here, I’ll help you’ and linked arms with her and then all of us linked arms … and we did the sit-ups together. He used all of us and what we were doing to help her up.”
McCasland loved the Corps, particularly the Aggie Band, but left his sophomore year to focus on academics. His friends said the Corps was central to McCasland’s life, even after he moved off the Quad.
“He loved the Corps, it was his favorite thing,” Scarborough said. “He put his whole heart into what he was doing with the Aggie Band.”
After he left the Corps, McCasland continued to maintain the relationships he had made.
“Even though he wasn’t in the Corps with us last year, he always made a point to be there for all of our major Corps events, hang out with us, and go out to eat with us whenever he could get the chance to,” Robertson said. “So he was still really involved with our class despite having left the Corps.”
His death came just before he was to order his Aggie Ring, and McCasland’s family donated his ring to the Association of Former Students to serve as the Memorial Collection’s 2015 class ring.
Picture provided.