Graduate student killed in car accident

Obituary: Demetrice Powell planned to attend to law school after graduation

By JEFF SKLAR
Assignment Editor

Demetrice Powell, a graduate student known for her charismatic personality and love of basketball, died in a car accident late Monday, the same day she passed the written portion of her qualifying exam. She was 24.

A driver who ran a red light broadsided the car in which she was a passenger.

Powell's mother, Lynn Sloan, remembered her as not only a loving daughter, but also a dear friend.

"She's my hero," Sloan said. "We were mother-daughter, but we were friends. A lot of people loved her."

Powell, known as "Dee" to her friends, was about a month away from completing her master's degree in planning. She expected to take a year off from school and then attend law school, family members said.

"She loved school," Sloan said. "She always wanted to be the teacher."

Powell's gregarious personality was also evident out of the classroom.

"She was a really good friend, and she was funny," said Maureen Spivak, a graduate student in planning.

Dowell Myers, director of the Master of Planning program, said that Powell's loss will be felt throughout the USC community.

"She's a great student," Myers said. "She lit up the class."

"This is a terrible loss for our communityŠ but one especially hard-felt among (members of her program)," Myers said in a note to students in the School of Policy Planning and Development.

Powell's sister, Stacey Rosborough, said Powell was going to be the first person in her family to earn a graduate degree. Powell graduated from University of California, Irvine with a double major in sociology and urban planning.

Powell's ties to USC went far beyond her own experiences. Her aunt works in the Financial Services Division, and her cousin is a chauffeur for President Steven B. Sample. She also grew up near campus, and according to her sister, she was especially eager for this commencement since she had so many close ties to the university.

"I remember all her graduations," Rosborough said. "I've never seen her more excited about graduating from anywhere."

In addition to her contagious love of USC, she also had a special place in her heart for basketball, a game that always brought her closer to her family.

Her sister and brother Rickey remembered fondly how they watched Monday night's NCAA championship game just before her accident.

"My dad talked to her at about 7:30 p.m.," Rosborough said. "They were going back and forth about the game."

Powell also frequented the Amateur Athletic Union games her brother Rickey coached. He recalled one moment when she happened to see USC point guard Brandon Granville's younger brother Cameron play and she said he would be a better player than his brother.

"She enjoyed sports and was a really good person," her brother said. "She would come out and watch me coachŠand let some of the kids know what they did wrong."

For her family, her death was especially difficult to bear because they were planning to continue playing intimate roles in each other's lives.

"She was in my wedding and I was looking forward to being in hers," Rosborough said. "She would be there whenever you needed her."

Copyright 2001 by the Daily Trojan. All rights reserved.
This article was published in Vol. 142, No. 51 (Wednesday, April 4, 2001), beginning on page 1 and ending on page 17.