The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace: A Brilliant Young Man Who Left Newark for the Ivy League

by Jeff Hobbs

I ENTERED MY NEW HOME, a quad on the fourth floor of Lanman-Wright Hall, with both of my parents trailing behind me.

Placing myself in this story was really difficult, because I'm aware of how minor a role I played in the great scheme of Rob's life, and because memoir was never a form I would typically even contemplate. In fact, I tried for a long time to leave myself out of the book or be "clever" about referencing myself discreetly. In the end, it became clear that there was no way around including myself as a character--that I had to, in a sense, own the fact that I had chosen to tell this story.