In eulogy, student's compassion recalled

SIMSBURY, Conn. - At the family's request, pizza and beer were served outdoors after David Woodman's funeral yesterday.

"Everything outside the church is what David loved," the Rev. Robert McGurn said after the service at Shepherd of the Hills Evangelical Lutheran Church, where Woodman's parents worship. "Plus, we couldn't fit this many people in there."

About 200 people filled the church's pews and spilled into a second room, to remember Woodman, 22, the Emmanuel College student who died June 29, 11 days after he was arrested during the Celtics NBA championship celebration and stopped breathing while in police custody. His death has prompted a series of ongoing investigations.

Woodman, who had been living in Brookline, was a complex and compassionate young man, committed to battling injustice wherever he saw it, the Rev. Dan Selbo told the young man's friends and family members during a remembrance. That passion, Selbo said, was long evident in Woodman.

In a story from his childhood, Woodman and his friends wanted a flag for their fort, Selbo said, so one boy ran across the street and grabbed a neighbor's. The problem was, Selbo said, that the child had picked a Confederate flag.

David's mother told the boy to return it. Then, Cathy Woodman sat David down and explained the history of slavery in the United States.

David designed a new flag, Selbo said. He drew a black person's face, then wrote: "Free the blacks."

Mourners laughed at the recollection.

Woodman was never afraid to say what he thought, said Selbo, a family friend from San Jose, Calif., where Woodman grew up. He lived intensely, the minister said, and he could not stand hypocrisy.

"When you were hugged by David, you knew it," Selbo said. "When he was angry, you knew it. . . . And when your actions didn't match your words, he let you know."

Woodman advocated for the less privileged, he befriended countless homeless people, and he never hesitated to share what he had, Selbo said.

"David's style was unconventional, but his love for people was unique," Selbo said. "If someone needed his last dollar, he'd give it. He told his parents it drove him crazy to sit in church. . . . He was a doer."

McGurn said one of the readings, from the New Testament Letter of James, was chosen to underscore the same point. "What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but do not have works?" the reading began. "Can faith save you?"

The answer, McGurn said during his sermon, is no. Woodman knew that, he said.

For Woodman, "it was not just words, but deeds," McGurn said. "That was David's faith."

McGurn also spoke of Woodman's generosity toward the homeless. But, he added, "we are not here to remember Saint David."

"I got the nods and smiles," McGurn said, looking at the front pew of family members.

Woodman's life, he said, was "scarred by sin," like everyone else's.

"Certainly, by every human standard, David was a very good man," McGurn said. "But for people of faith . . . it is by God's standard that we are judged."

He encouraged Woodman's family and friends to live by and take comfort in their faith.

One picture sat before the altar yesterday: Woodman, hands clasped on his knee, a relaxed smile on his face. A bagpiper played "Amazing Grace" as people filed into the pews.

When they left, it was silent. Two young men in suits stood in a corner, arms around each other, tears streaming down one's face.

Outside, rock music played, and conversations began. Woodman, friends said, was irresistible.

Jacqui Macek, 21, who is from Rhode Island and a student at Emmanuel College, said Woodman was "hard not to like." She had been friends with him "forever," she said, "since I met him."

The others standing nearby, also from Emmanuel College, agreed. They toasted their friend, clinking together bottles of beer.

Maddie Hanna can be reached at mhanna@globe.com.