Hunter Green was just embarking on his experience on the main SMU campus. But his connection with the SMU family lives with students Garret Ruoff and Michael Dooley, who look back on Green with fine memories; remembering him as a comic and a quirky dresser, but mostly, as a good friend.

A group of SMU students were chosen last spring to be the first to participate in a new semester-long program at Fort Burgwin, SMU’s mountain campus.

Known affectionately to each other as the “Taos Ten,” a group of six male students and three female students traveled to New Mexico with anthropology professor Mike Adler in August 2009.

The setting includes lodging in small dormitories called casitas and a unique, hands-on learning environment.

It was in Taos that Hunter Green became a part of the SMU family, quickly meshing with a group of students he would come to know well.

Two students from the group sat down with The Daily Campus to share stories about Hunter to show a small piece of him to the rest of the SMU community.

“He was the comedian of the group for sure. He always made everyone laugh,” Garrett Ruoff said.

Green had transferred from the University of Central Florida and was having to adjust to a completely new setting with new people. 

“Hunter definitely seemed like a really average guy on the outside but there was definitely a lot more to him,” Dooley said. “It took me a pretty long time to discover that—to discover his loving and caring side, and how he was really ultimately an awesome person.”

“He was a very sweet guy,” Ruoff said. “It took awhile for all of us.”

Dooley said Green’s sarcastic sense of humor brought the group together through laughter: 

“You could never get mad at him because you knew he was being playful, whatever he was doing,” Ruoff said.

Ruoff said Green became infamous for wearing a blue Muppet hat almost every day. Since Green’s death, the hat is now being passed around the group to wear around campus in homage to Green’s quirkiness.

“It was his smile. You couldn’t feel scared or intimated by him—it was just that smile. Ruoff said.

“He did his own thing,” Ruoff said, reflecting on Green’s character. “He wore shorts all the time; flip flops when it was snowing outside.”

Dooley recalls Green riding his bike through the snow across campus.

Part of the tradition for the Taos group was to hold campfires near campus where they would prepare food and congregate at the end of the day. A culinary novice at first, Green learned quickly how to roll “the perfect burrito,” Dooley said.

Dooley said he also recalls sledding with Green on a snowy mountain road near campus. Described as “very inventive,” Green had built an entire bobsled course out of the trees and snow banks, even including a signature obstacle that apparently only he could navigate.

His infectious smile and acerbic wit were Green’s most remarkable traits, Ruoff said. He said he did not recall Green mentioning his former school or even his family very often.

“His past life didn’t exactly sound perfect, but he really kept to himself about that. I don’t think anyone knew about that,” Ruoff said.

At Thanksgiving, Dooley said he remembers Green saying he did not want to return to Taos.

“I kind of got that vibe in the beginning, you know, that he was the kid that didn’t necessarily want to be there,” Dooley said.

By the end of the term in New Mexico, Dooley and Ruoff said the small group had grown very close. Returning to SMU for the spring, Ruoff and Dooley said they looked forward to seeing Green again.

On Friday, SMU officials notified the group of Green’s passing. 

“I didn’t believe it at first,” Ruoff said. “I hadn’t seen him yet this semester: There was no way.”

“That’s the hardest thing, that I couldn’t see him and say, ‘hey man, I had a great time with you, I care about you and if you ever need me,

I’m here for you’—but he knew that, I’m sure he did,” Ruoff said.

Dooley and Ruoff said they were relieved to meet with Green’s family and to share stories with them at the Sunday memorial service in Dallas.

“It’s tough to lose someone in a small group like that, and it’s tough that no one else got to know him too because he was really a very unique guy,” Ruoff said. “I’d never met anyone like him and I’m sure I will never meet anyone like him again.”