Wednesday, June 14, 2006
It only took 45 minutes to trust Joe Petermann, over the phone and well enough for Julie Sommerhauser to agree to let Petermann live with her. The two had never met in person,
Last December, Sommerhauser, Wichita senior, needed a roommate, Petermann had just returned from Australia where he had been studying abroad and he needed a place to live. Sommerhauser’s landlord recommended Petermann, a former tenant, to her. Petermann and Sommerhauser spoke on the phone and he moved in a week later.
“That’s just the kind of person he was,” Sommerhauser said, “There’s an electricity he gives off. I liked him immediately.”
Petermann, Arlington Heights, Ill., senior passed away May 28 at his parents’ home in the Chicago suburb. He was going to take classes this summer.
Dave Maul, St. Louis senior and Petermann’s best friend, said that Petermann was the type of guy that met different people all the time.
“He could walk into a party by himself and go up to a complete stranger and start a conversation,” Maul said. “He could make friends with anyone.”
Sommerhauser said Petermann made friends without trying, She described a time at Abe and Jake’s Landing when Petermann approached a group of KU basketball players to get them to buy him a drink.
“We thought they’d think he was a loser and tell him to leave them alone,” Sommerhauser said. “He just went over there with his wide smile and the next thing we knew, they were buying his drinks.”
Sommerhauser said Petermann was always smiling.
Petermann was an avid sports fan, especially of KU sports and the Chicago White Sox. He also enjoyed playing poker with friends and at the casinos. He would go to the casinos in Kansas City, Mo., after class if he felt like it.
He once played poker with Sommerhauser using crayons as chips because she didn’t want to lose any money.
“He wanted me to be a part of his life, and for me to do that, he didn’t make me play for real money,” Sommerhauser said. “He’d conform to me.”
She went on to say that Petermann never forced anyone to do what they didn’t want to do whether it was going out on a school night or playing cards for money. He adapted to his friends.
Maul described Petermann, a psychology major, as the party guy who always got good grades, maintaining a 4.0 GPA last semester.
Sommerhauser said Petermann really enjoyed his classes and that psychology came naturally to him. Petermann never went to the library, but sat with a book on the couch. Even with his success in college, he never spoke about the future with his friends.
“He didn’t have any goals to be rich,” Sommerhauser said. “He just lived life, He really did live life to the fullest and he only lived to be 21, He did everything he wanted to do.”
Funeral services were held on June 1, in Arlington Heights, Ill. Maul said about 20 of Petermann’s friends from KU and about 10 from Chicago attended the service. The extent of his death is still unknown,
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