“Troy lived the life of many lifetimes, he lived life to the fullest, and never let anything hold him back from doing what he loved,” said Troy R. Marschang’s former roommate, James Law, a junior mechanical engineering major.
Marschang was a junior petroleum engineering major, who his friends and family describe as dedicated to his studies, fiancé and friends.
Marschang, 19, was killed when he was ejected from the driver’s side window after rolling his car through a ditch on highway 6 on Feb. 7.
He was on his way to Houston to visit his fiancé, junior biomedical sciences major Kassi Montgomery, who was working at Texas Children’s Hospital for the weekend.
“He was a safe driver, he never sped and he was not drinking. In fact, he always went went under the speed limit. This is the first time in months that I had not ridden in the car with him,” Montgomery said.
Marschang attended International School of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for high school, where he lived with his father, Steve, and brother, Ryan. He attended Texas A&M Qatar in fall 2008. His father graduated from A&M with a petroleum engineering degree.
He served as the class president of his high school and graduated in 2007.
“He had a bubbly personality and he really enjoyed school. He loved A&M, and there was so many things that he loved about it,” said his grandmother, Marjory Marschang.
Marschang was involved in the Student Engineering Council, men’s volleyball and had traveled to Cork, Ireland, with the A&M Qatar debate team in December. He interned with Chevron over the summer and had plans to return this summer.
He enjoyed spending time with his fiancé.
“He couldn’t go four hours without talking to me, if he didn’t call me on the fourth hour, I would have called him on the fifth,” Montgomery said.
She said he was patient and understanding under any circumstance.
“In all the time we were together, I can’t remember him ever getting mad at me. No matter how much I yelled or got upset, he would just hold my hand,” she said.
Law said he was confident and ambitious, with a ferocious work ethic.
“While he was younger than me, myself and many others looked to him for leadership, and advice; he was a natural leader,” Law said. “He was the kind of person people wanted to be around.”
His friends described him as athletic and motivated. Montgomery said he earned a 4.0 for the fall semester, and never allowed himself to fall behind in class.
“He was a fantastic athlete and a highly motivated and successful student,” Law said. “He was able to see past what most of us call rules or expectations; and saw only opportunity.”
Law said Marschang had done more in his 19 years than most people would do in 50.
“He had the uncanny ability to come back from every trip he took with more money than he left with,” Law said. “But he used something much more powerful than money to succeed – his mind. He knew how the world worked, and he had this wonderful ability to manipulate it to suit him.”
Montgomery said he wasn’t just a robotic engineer, he was silly and fun.
“I got to see this completely adorable side that nobody else got to see, nobody else knew that side of him,” she said. “He was my best friend.”
She said he was romantic and thoughtful, always thinking of others and never of himself.
“He was always surprising me, just little things, like poems, making me dinner, walks,” Montgomery said. “We had our plans for the next 80 years – names for our kids, college funds. I know it sounds silly, but we planned to get married in a year and a half from now. He was happy, and he told me that all the time.”