WILLIAM HAUVER Rollins student juggled artistry and athleticism
Rollins College associate professor of art Dana Hargrove was going to cancel her painting class on Wednesday.
Instead, she brought cupcakes, and, turning on a Bob Dylan recording, announced:
“[We are going to] paint our hearts out today.”
Then, as they listened to the music he loved, Hargrove and her students swapped stories about Will Hauver — an athlete and artist who elevated the standard both on the field and in the classroom.
William Hauver died suddenly Monday. A Type 1 diabetic, he had suffered from stomach flu Sunday, his father said. Hauver was 22.
Posters with bold typeface words — “Strength of Will” — designed by another art student are on display on the Winter Park campus.
Hauver, whose own aesthetic ranged from caricatures coupled with witty oneliners to graphic design and even furniture creations, designed preseason T-shirts to be worn by his Tars lacrosse teammates.
Hauver carried himself with what Hargrove described as a quiet self-assurance, and in doing so, was an example that his classmates and teammates could emulate.
“Leaders aren’t made; they are born,” Coach RJ Rossi said of the Tars senior captain. He said that regardless of the score at halftime, Hauver would take to the field with the vigor of a player ready to win a game.
“He was the only one that would be like that,” Rossi said. “And kids fed off that.”
The first year that Rossi allowed players to pick their own captains, Hauver was one of the three selected.
Part of Hauver’s motivational technique — and a pillar of his personality — was his humor.
Bob Hauver of Towson, Md., said that his son, who was competitive, employed humor to maintain perspective.
“I think he enjoyed poking fun at himself,” said Hargrove. “He didn’t take himself too seriously.”
William Hauver stuck to a stringent work ethic.
He was up at 6 a.m. for practice and back again at 4 p.m.; he was enrolled in five classes and clocked in three hours a day at the Rollins radio station in marketing. His father said Hauver managed his diabetes every second of every day.
Born in Baltimore, Hauver learned the art of balance at an early age. A middle-school teacher told him he could indulge his passions for both athletics and art.
And in that early afternoon class at Rollins, the first since Hauver died, Hargrove’s students continued their Vanitas still-life paintings — the focus of which is the transience of life — with Hauver in mind.
In addition to his father, William Hauver is survived by his mother, Lyndall Hauver, and siblings, Megan and Tommy Hauver, all of Towson, Md.; maternal grandmother, Barbara Grant of Staunton, Va.; maternal grandfather Bill Littell and stepgrandmother Chris Littell, both of Hilton Head Island, S.C.; and paternal grandmother, Elsie Hauver of Hilton Head Island.
Woodlawn Memorial Park & Funeral Home, Gotha, is handling arrangements.