BY BETH VELLIQUETTE

bvelliquette@heraldsun.com; 918-1042

CHAPEL HILL -- His brothers at Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity sobbed as they left the Chapel of the Cross church Tuesday afternoon following a memorial for Courtland Benjamin Smith, the president of their Greek letter organization.

Smith, 21, died early Sunday morning in Randolph County after he dialed 911 and asked for help, saying that he was trying to kill himself. An Archdale police officer shot and killed him during a confrontation on Interstate 85.

Friends who spoke at the memorial talked of a kind, generous leader who planned on becoming a neurosurgeon. He loved the outdoors, camping, whitewater kayaking and spent his summers as a camp counselor at Camp Mondamin in Tuxedo, the same camp he attended as a child.

One of his best friends, Thomas C. Ewing Jr., of Charlotte, first met Smith, who was from Houston, Texas, at the age of 9 at the camp in the mountains of North Carolina.

Each summer they renewed their friendship, and they both went on to be camp counselors, he said.

Ewing spoke at the memorial and afterwards as well.

"He was so great with children," Ewing said. "For them, he was like a father away from home, and I can't explain how much they appreciated that."

Jim Glenn, who was Smith's roommate at UNC, told the 300 or so people in attendance at the memorial service, that Smith always cheered him on.

"He always tried his hardest to make me happy and live a good life," Glenn said.

Glenn also reminded those at the gathering that Smith "will always be a Tar Heel."

Although Ewing didn't attend UNC, many of his high school friends did and became members of the DKE fraternity. When they asked Ewing during fraternity rush what kind of guy Smith was, he told them he was the only person he would trust with his life.

Smith was exceptional, Ewing said.

"I never saw him do a bad job of anything," he said. "The only way to put it was he was a champion in all things in life."

In high school at Strake Jesuit College Preparatory School, he was a member of the National Honor Society and captain of the wrestling team.

Smith had leadership skills since he was a child, Ewing said.

"He was a true leader and an all-American kid," he said. "He was an outstanding human being."