Community Mourns Sussex Tech Student Who Died After Skateboard Accident

HARDYSTON, NJ — Tommy Bock, a student at Sussex Tech High School, died suddenly over the weekend after falling from a skateboard. He was 15 years old.

Bock was an active teen: he played football, wrestled, and swam on teams, enjoyed hunting, fishing, surfing and snowboarding and "enjoyed every athletic challenge that he faced," his obituary said.

"Everyone who knew Tommy loved him, everyone who didn’t know him instantly fell in love with his smile. He was taken from us too early," Jennifer Haug Weekly wrote in a GoFundMe page set up for the family. "We lost someone dear to our hearts and not having Tommy here with us is still the most surreal feeling that any of us could ever feel. Tommy is forever our son, forever our brother, forever our friend and forever in our hearts."

"Our lives were all touched because of Tommy. He made each of us smile with his enthusiasm he had towards life, his empathy towards others, his laughter was contagious and his heart full of love," Weekly wrote.

A close family friend and coach shared this anecdote of Bock on Facebook (you can read the full post below):

I started coaching Tommy when he was just 5, 10 years ago. I remember that first year coaching flag and yelling at Tommy and the other kids to focus and stop fooling around, because we know, kids that age can be a handful. I can remember at times being so furious that I would scream at him, “Tommy! What are you doing?” and he would look at me with those eyes and smile, and any piece of anger I had at Tommy or anyone else I was coaching disappeared, that smile had magic powers. And as the years went by and he became a teen, I again would start to scream during football, lacrosse, at my house or on vacation, “Tommy! What are ….” and I would see those eyes and smile and never finish my sentence, all the anger and frustration left me. He was that kind of a person.

Bock was skating on a new longboard when he took his helmet off to film a video, his mother told NJ Herald. He fell and hit his head, causing brain swelling. Despite emergency surgery, Bock passed away at Morristown Medical Center Sunday morning.

He is survived by his parents, Eric Bock and Diane Bocka, and younger sister Allison, as well as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

A service will he held Thursday May 11 at St. Jude the Apostle Church (4-24 Beaver Run Road, Hamburg) from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. A mass will be held Friday morning at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Christopher Reeve Foundation in Tommy’s name.

Friends of the family established a GoFundMe campaign to help offset funeral costs. The campaign has raised more than $36,000 as of Tuesday morning.

Image via GoFundMe

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