Get Herald RSSPaige Hicks '11 was killed July 20 while leading a cross-country bike trip to raise money for affordable housing.
Hicks, of Chesterfield, Mo., was struck by a tractor trailer on U.S. Highway 18 near Vetal, S.D., said Lt. David Berkeley of the South Dakota Highway Patrol. Hicks had pulled over on the side of the road to check messages on her cell phone.
Berkeley said she had stopped in an area of rolling hills, near the badlands region of the state — "kind of out in the middle of nowhere."
The tractor trailer was hauling a combine, and though the driver, Scott Wenzel, tried to swerve out of the way, he did not see Hicks in time, Berkeley said. He said a final investigation of the accident is not yet complete, but charges against Wenzel are unlikely.
Hicks was serving as a group leader for Bike and Build, a nonprofit program that raises money for affordable housing. She was one of four leaders of the 31-person group biking from Providence to Seattle.
They were about 2,100 miles into their 3,863 mile trip, said Chaz Firestone '10, a group member and former Herald managing editor.
Hicks was "someone who was friends with everyone," said Jesse Cohn '10, a close friend. She described Hicks as incredibly "enthusiastic and motivating."
"She was a big old ball of energy the whole time," Firestone said. During their trip, Hicks told Firestone that what she most wanted to do in life was figure out how to unlock people's potential.
"She exemplified that as a leader," he said. "Her happiness was contagious."
She had an amazing ability to get people excited about things, said Haley Hicks, Paige's older sister. Haley said that the Bike and Build program brought together athleticism and social activism — two values that Paige held strongly — and noted how important friendship and community were to her sister.
Friends and family members repeatedly described Hicks as passionate and driven, pursuing her interests with a unique positivism, confidence and spirit.
She was a human biology concentrator, but pursued a strong interest in medieval and religious studies, Haley said.
Hicks played on Brown's ultimate Frisbee team, a "very close-knit community," said Cohn, Hicks' teammate. About 15 team members traveled to St. Louis for memorial services this weekend, Firestone said. Teammates also held a dinner in Providence shortly after receiving news of the accident, and wore commemorative purple ribbons on their jerseys at a July 24 tournament.
Though her memorial service was originally to take place in a church in St. Louis, it was moved to her high school to accommodate all of the interested people, Firestone said.
"She's meant so much to so many different people in so many different contexts," he said. "Paige was just one of those special people. I don't think I'll ever meet another Paige."
"She was always wanting to make sure everyone was having a good time," Cohn said of Hicks. When members of the Frisbee team could not attend the traditional Gala dance this spring due to tournament scheduling, Hicks planned an alternative formal party, making sure no one felt they had missed out.
The Bike and Build program originally sparked Hicks' interest with the promise of physical challenge, according to a letter she wrote on the program's website while abroad in Barcelona, Spain in fall 2009. "I like to earn my views, so these tour buses and trips up the Pyrenees in cars are killing me," she wrote.
But over the course of her first trip last summer, she became more interested in housing policy and history. "What I want to learn more about are some of the root causes of homelessness and how we could work to attack the problem from the base up," she wrote.
News of the accident was "devastating" to the Bike and Build group, Firestone said. But, he said, they soon began sharing their fondest memories of Hicks, each story recounting her constant smile, easy laugh and positive spirit.
"There have been a lot of tears," he said, but the group has had an incredible amount of support. "I think we all feel that we lost a sister."
A memorial service will be held on campus in the fall, wrote President Ruth Simmons in a July 22 e-mail notifying the University community of Hicks' death.
"Paige was a devoted member of the Brown community whose efforts touched many," Simmons wrote.
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