April 5, 2004 — September 16, 2023

A curious student who loved learning about the world and serving people around him.
Drake’s mother, Robyn, described Drake as a mischievous young boy, who would often get reprimanded for having a little too much fun in the classroom.
“He had this really great friend in third grade who was hilarious … and Drake would laugh when he would do stuff, and then they would both get in trouble,” Robyn said. “He was a little bit mischievous, but he was good. He was a good kid always, but he definitely had a sense of humor and he found lots of things funny.”
Robyn said despite her profession as a teacher, Drake would frequently inform her about a lot of things she didn’t know.
“One on one, he was really smart and engaging, and he could talk about … any subject,” Robyn said. “He was just extremely bright and he read everything he could get his hands on, and he remembered that stuff later.”
Drake shared a love of music with his older brother Luke, Class of 2024, Robyn said. He attended several music festivals with him and sometimes with their father, Paul. His favorite band was My Chemical Romance, and he could never get enough of the track “The Adults Are Talking” by The Strokes.
“That was his favorite song, we played it at his service … at the very end,” Robyn said. “He really loved music, and he complained all the time that I listened to bad music in the car.”
Drake decided to attend Texas A&M because of the engineering program, but also because of the familiarity of having his older brother there, Robyn said. The two were roommates this year after Drake lived in a dorm his freshman year. Throughout college, Robyn said he was most passionate about 3D printing and would make things for her.
“He 3D printed me a lucky cat — now the arm doesn’t move, it just stays up — but it was so cute, and he had to figure out how to do that,” Robyn said. “He also 3D printed me a nameplate to sit on my desk at school.”
High-end electronics had always interested Drake, and he was known for being the family’s go-to IT guy. When he was around 10 years old, Drake and Luke accidentally fixed their grandmother’s broken computer.
“They divided up all the parts; they played with them for about a week,” Robyn said. “Then they decided to put it back together, and guess what? That thing fired up.”
In high school, Drake ended up building his own computer. When he wasn’t working on electronics, Robyn said he enjoyed volunteering at a local church program called Revive, where he would be assigned kids to entertain and make sure they had a fun night.
“He did that for several years,” Robyn said. “He liked kids to a degree.”
Drake was the youngest of three boys and was the hunter of the family. In the fall, the boys in their extended family would squeeze in a hunting trip to their deer lease, usually around Thanksgiving.
“They would go there and not really shower,” Robyn said. “Drake was like, ‘That shower is disgusting there,’ and so he would just wait until he got home, and they would all come home stinky, needing to clean up. Just a lot of fun.”
This spring, Drake took a trip to Europe with Luke and his dad. Robyn said he liked Norway the best, partly due to his love of cooler weather.
“He always told me he was going to live abroad somewhere after he was done with school,” Robyn said. “I think he would’ve pursued that, trying out different locations, just seeing the world. But he got the chance to go to some cool places.”
Drake loved Mexican food — especially chips and queso. Robyn said she enjoyed watching movies and traveling with him.
“A couple of summers ago, we went to San Francisco, and he made me ride those Segways,” Robyn said. “It was a lot of fun, but I had to get out of my comfort zone a little bit to ride that thing. He kind of forced me to try some new things.”
Robyn said that he embodied the Aggie Core Value of Integrity the most.
“He just did things because they were right, whether anybody’s looking or not, and that’s what integrity is,” Robyn said. “Doing the right thing even when nobody’s watching.”