Professor Killed In Plane Crash Remembered At NSU Broken Arrow Graduation

NSU marketing professor Dr. Garrett Coble, 29, lost his life in a plane crash Friday. Coble was a passenger on a twin-engine Cessna 401 that crashed on the way to a Teen Mania Ministries conference in Iowa.

5/12/2012 Related Story: Kansas Plane Crash Claims Lives Of ORU Graduates, Former Teacher

Coble touched many students' lives, and should have been beside them Monday night in Broken Arrow, marking a milestone.

The NSU Broken Arrow campus held its spring graduation Monday night. Although this was a time for celebration; it was also a time to remember one of their own.

The graduating class of 2012 paused to honor Garrett Coble. He worked for NSU for about a year until his life came to a tragic end in a plane crash in Kansas.

"It's just a big disappointment, tragedy of course and makes us all sad, but disappointing that the things he was set to accomplish are now not going to happen," said Dr Roger Collier, NSU Interim Dean of Business & Technology.

Coble was one of the younger professors in the College of Business and Technology. Many say he had a special bond with his students.

"He really related well to students," Collier said. "He had really begun to build a group of students that were really interested in taking classes from him and so they're going to be disappointed. There will be some rebuilding to do after this."

As soon as the news hit, his students took to Facebook in disbelief that their professor is gone.

One person wrote: "We just ended class on Wednesday and he died Friday. I still have NSU emails in my inbox from him. He was a good person and an awesome professor. You will be forever missed."

As a graduate of Henryetta High School and a former professor at Oral Roberts University, people who knew him say he was definitely a rising star.

"I think he was at the beginning of a very promising career," Collier said.

Now NSU faculty and staff are trying to figure out how to fill the void that Coble left behind.

"It's just such a tragedy of course," Collier said. "We're all heartbroken at the loss of someone who was so talented, so personable, had already made such an impression, such an impact here. It's hard to let go."

Coble was supposed to receive his PHD from Oklahoma State University in August.

Garrett Coble's funeral will be this Thursday at 2 p.m. at Christ's Chapel on the ORU campus. The family has requested that you do not send flowers.