Nearly everyone in the hallways and classrooms at North County High School in Glen Burnie knew Walter Brooks Jr. They didn't know him because he was one of the school's top athletes or one of its top students when he graduated last spring. He was neither.
Most knew him because of an oversize personality that his friends and family say was matched only by the size of his heart. Brooks, 18, died Wednesday after a brief illness; his parents said they were told by doctors that the cause was swine flu.
"Everyone loved Walter," said Andrea Hunt, who had known Brooks since the sixth grade and became best friends with him in high school.
That is why hundreds went to a candlelight vigil a few hours after he died. That is why his father, Walt, said that his son's funeral service, set for Tuesday, has been moved to a church in Severn that can accommodate 1,000 mourners.
It is also why a float dedicated to his memory was on parade at Saturday night's homecoming game - an "All You Need Is Love" float, according to Hunt, whose Facebook page with Brooks' favorite Beatles song drew more than 1,800 posts a day after it was put up.
"He never worried about himself," Walt Brooks said Friday as he made funeral arrangements. "If you were having a bad day, all he wanted to do was try to make you smile."
Said Serge Joffe, who directed Brooks in several North County theatrical productions, "His appeal to the students transcended what you might call cliques or groups. Everyone across the spectrum really liked him."
That is why Brooks, who played the lead role in nearly every high school production and was in the marching band, was selected last year's prom king by his fellow students.
"And he wasn't even a jock," his father, who works as a Coast Guard shipfitter, said proudly.
Hunt, who was selected prom queen and went as Brooks' date, recalled how happy her best friend was at receiving such an accolade that is usually the domain of athletes, cheerleaders and those otherwise perceived to be cool kids.
"He was so happy about it, because we finally broke the streak, a random kid," Hunt said.
Brooks told many at North County that he was gay, but Hunt said, "Like his mom said at the candlelight vigil, 'There's gay, there's straight, there's bisexual and there's Walter.' He had too much love for everyone to define who he was going to give that love to."
