FAMU Eternal Flames host Joseph Memorial

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Florida A&M University’s Undergraduate Student Success Center will host a memorial service for Moise Joseph Oct. 2 at 6p.m. at the Eternal Flame.

Joseph, the drector of science labs and an instructor for The First Year Experience program, was shot and killed while protecting his girlfriend from her armed ex-husband Sept. 13. 

Lawrence Brown, FAMU's first year experience coordinator spoke highly about Joseph and the impact he had on his freshman class in such a short period of time.

“Mr. Joseph was an instructor in the FAMU first year experience program. He was assisting the university with helping freshman students' transition from high school to college,” Brown said. “Over the last three weeks he had become a large figure in his class room. His students were really attached to him; his death was a shocker to the students. Once they found out, to their credit they almost immediately began to plan a memorial for him.”

Aaron Watson, first-year jazz studies student and Tallahassee native, was a student in Joseph's SLS class expressed how much he looked up to Mr. Joseph since his freshman year in high school and was excited to see Mr. Joseph teaching the class he originally thought would be a “waste of time.”

“I truly knew it was going to be an amazing class for me, personally, because Mr. Joseph and I go back to when I was a freshman in high school. He knew my little brother and he always asked,'Is your little brother still in school?' That showed me he was a man with substance and he was serious about grades and I am too, so that’s one of the reasons I really looked up to him and I was looking forward to this class," Watson said.

The students were not the only ones who spoke highly of Mr. Joseph. Michelle Johnson, a second-year business administration and theatre art student from Dallas, Texas and peer mentor in Joseph’s class describes her time with Mr. Joseph as a humbling experience with a humble man.

“I would describe Mr. Joseph in one word as humble because, even though he was the instructor, he asked for direction in the class. He wasn’t afraid to ask for help. He would give us motivational and inspirational talks to keep us going throughout the day and that, to me, showed his humbleness," Johnson said.

Joseph’s memorial is scheduled to take place Oct. 2, 2015 at 6 p.m. at FAMU's Eternal Flame located across the street for Lee Hall Auditorium, 1601 S Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Tallahassee, Fl 32301.