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As he walked across Syracuse University’s Quad with fellow students April Santana and Tyler Dawson on a summer night, Boburmirzo “Bob” Sharipov decided he wanted to learn how to dance.

The three were returning from one of Santana’s dance performances with a Hispanic dance group on campus, and Sharipov convinced himself he could dance too. Santana taught and Dawson watched as Sharipov attempted to dance Batcha on the Quad.

“He was awful,” Dawson said with levity. “He couldn’t do a single (move), but he kept asking for different songs and routines that he would be better at and I just sat there and watched the whole thing. It was hilarious.”

Sharipov, a junior at SU studying in the Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, died on Nov. 18 in a car accident. Friends at SU and family at home in Brooklyn, New York said Sharipov had a comforting humor and wit.

Santana, who lived two floors down from Sharipov in Lawrinson Hall during their freshman year, said he acted as a makeshift, sometimes snarky therapist for his friends. He would come into her room, take one of Santana’s books off her desk, put on her roommate’s glasses and proclaim, “therapist Bob is here.”

“He would write down everything we needed to rant about,” Santana said. “Whenever I needed to talk to someone I would go to him.”

Sharipov often responded through Santana’s self-proclaimed rants with a “yeah, you’re right” or a “this is dumb, you’re overreacting.”

“If I had a problem, I knew that I could go and talk to him and get his input,” Santana said.

Sharipov met many of his close college friends in Lawrinson, including Dawson, who was his roommate throughout his time at SU, and Lindsey Latorre, a junior in the Martin J. Whitman School of Management.

When the Barnes Center at the Arch required students to sign up for slots to workout during the pandemic and Latorre only had time to go at night, Sharipov was always there to make sure she felt safe.

“It was just that quick little walk from the Barnes Center down to Lawrinson at nighttime, but I was a freshman and I didn’t want to make that walk alone,” she said. “There were a handful of times that I would just text him or call him and he’d meet me outside of the gym and walk me home.”

During many of the wintery pandemic nights of the spring 2021 semester, Sharipov and his friends played spikeball on Lawrinson’s second floor between the building’s computer lab and elevators.

“We all lived in the same building, our little school family,” Latorre said.

When members of the usual Spikeball group were too busy to play, they would sit against the wall and do homework. But Sharipov rarely spent time on the sidelines.

“Bob was always super competitive, always wanting to play spike ball or ping pong or whatever we were doing,” Dawson said. “He was always playing.”

Abdulaziz Sharipov, Sharipov’s brother, calls his friends at SU his “family away from family.”
Every time Sharipov came home, he recounted how much fun he was having at school, his brother said.

“Even though he passed away too young, he had the best three years of his life,” Abdulaziz Sharipov said.

Sharipov was also a resident advisor in Haven Hall. One of his fellow RAs, senior Sydney Grosso, trained Sharipov on working the front desk – or at least she tried to. Sharipov used sarcasm to relate to people, Grosso said. He always made a serious situation more lighthearted while also showing that he cared, she said.

“We ended up just talking and laughing for the whole four hours,” Grosso said. “That was kind of who Bob was. He would have those moments where something was really supposed to be taken seriously and he made it into something fun and memorable.”

Following his death, Sharipov’s family created an online fundraiser, to help with the costs of his funeral. With 21 days as of Nov. 28 until the fundraiser closes, over 200 people have donated a total of $11,049. The campaign’s original goal was set at $10,000.

“Everyone always gravitated towards him at any family gathering; always cracking jokes and lightening up any mood,” the fundraiser’s website reads.

Throughout Sharipov’s time at SU, Dawson saw him become more and more outgoing. Sharipov could have a conversation with anyone, anywhere, he said.

“I’m so happy I got to meet him, so happy I got to spend two years with him as my roommate,” Dawson said. “I’ll always have the memory of the first friend, first real true friend at Syracuse.”

Published on November 29, 2022 at 12:47 am

Contact Kyle: kschouin@syr.edu | @Kyle_Chouinard