He loved cooking and cheap haircuts. He was a proud soldier and a loyal friend.
Most of all, his friends say, Victor Strizzi was just one of those kids everyone liked.
They just saw him in their Foundations of Tactical Leadership class Tuesday morning, and now they can’t understand how he was gone hours later.
Strizzi, an ROTC cadet, served in Germany before starting at the University of Tampa as a sophomore in the fall, using credits from online classes to jump past his freshman year.
‘He was always willing to help,’ one friend said. ‘He was just a plain good kid.’
And he was very Italian.
Strizzi’s friends said his ‘Italian-ness’ showed. He loved to cook but was frustrated that his Austin room had no kitchen.
So he made routine trips to see his grandmother in St. Petersburg. They weren’t close when he started at UT, friends say, but they grew closer because most of the rest of the Strizzi family was up North.
If he didn’t take his friends with him, he would come back from St. Pete with leftovers for his friends.
‘He had this homemade pasta with cheese tortellini,’ a friend said, ‘with this tomato-basil sauce. It was so good.’
In addition to cooking marathons, Strizzi also loved running them. Just a month ago, he finished the Walt Disney World Marathon in 4 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds, good enough for 134th place out of nearly 15,000.
At the morning physical training exercises, he was known throughout ROTC for his bright, colored, shoes-that-you-could-never-miss.
Even if he didn’t like you, he’d still give you a chance. One friend said they didn’t hit it off at first, but they grew to like each other.
Strizzi got his motorcycle in September, and would ride it to MacDill Air Force Base to get a cheap haircut. His friends teased him that the haircuts were not just cheap in price, but cheap in quality.
But he didn’t mind. They were $7, and everyone else charged about $15.
Strizzi passed away in Tampa after a car crashed into his motorcycle on Bayshore Boulevard. His friends are searching for answers about how their nicest friend could just disappear like that.
‘He was just a good kid, that’s all there is to say,’ said a friend, struggling to find the words.
Students’ names were withheld, as they were instructed not to talk to any journalists by ROTC commanders.
Peter Arrabal can be reached at parrabal@gmail.com
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