Robert Liu competed in three to four business case competitions a year and his friend, Jack Castell, can’t remember him losing one.
“Anything he didn’t win, it’s because they didn’t want him to win again,” Castell said. “I can’t remember if he ever lost one, but if he did he still would get an award for best presenter or something.”
But his friends saw more in him than just a smart brain. They said they saw an immensely generous friend who was loyal to the end.
Liu died June 7 in an NYU dorm he was staying at while interning in the city.
Even though Liu was competitive, he would often be found assisting other teams or anyone who needed help.
“He never sacrificed the opportunity to help someone for his own benefit and he didn’t need to,” Castell said. “If anyone wanted help they always got it.”
He is remembered by many as the smartest person they’ve ever met and as someone who, no matter what he chose to do in life, would succeed.
Castell transferred to IU wanting to get into the investment banking workshop and was Liu’s next-door neighbor. Liu happened to be the president of the investment banking club and is the reason Castell made it into the workshop and has the job he has today, Castell said.
Other friends, Larry Reverman and Dan Ripma, met Liu through a professional business fraternity in the Kelley School of Business.
When Liu pledged the fraternity, Reverman was assigned to be his tutor for a math class, but they soon found out Liu was actually much better at math, Reverman said.
Liu’s intelligence and his pay-it-forward spirit led him to be many people’s mentor within the fraternity and outside of it.
“Rob was very good at making people feel included and like they wanted to be there,” Ripma said. “He had a very eclectic personality, and I vividly remember him being good at making sure new people were included and felt comfortable.”
Some of the best memories Castell, Reverman and Ripma made with Liu were in the School of Public and Environmental Affairs library working on case competitions or studying all night for tests.
“Those are the best times, late nights listening to music and doing work on Excel,” Castell said. “That’s where he was the happiest.”
But Liu wasn’t just the type of student who stayed in all the time doing homework. He also loved hip-hop music, fashion and video games.
His favorite artists included Kanye West and Future, but Ripma described him as an encyclopedia of artists with all the music he knew. He would even make his own music sometimes and his friend Duane Thompson said he was like an Asian DMX.
One time Liu and Reverman went to a Waka Flocka Flame concert. The night is one of Reverman’s favorite memories with Liu because he couldn’t think of anyone else who would pay money to see the artist with him.
“The performer was moshing with everyone and we were in the pit together,” Reverman said. “It’s just not anything anyone would associate with either of us, but we had so much fun doing it.”
Above all, Liu had dreams of making the world a better place, Castell said. Liu was always there to talk to anyone about their problems and was never okay with how the world could be so cruel to people, he said.
“He looked forward to making a difference and changing the way things are to make it better for people,” Castell said. “We all just kind of got robbed. The world’s been kind of jipped from not getting to see what he was going to do.”
