Friends, Family Remember Pat Anita Eamsureya

The University of Maryland fall semester started with one less smiling face on campus.

“There was not a single person that did not love Pat. She was always smiling and always loving,” Tam Nguyen said soon after his friend, Pat Anita Eamsureya, was discovered dead in her on-campus apartment in July.

Eamsureya, an international student from Thailand, is described by her friends and family as one who was endlessly enthusiastic about life. She was 19 years old.

“We all loved her for loving life,” Nguyen said.

From Thailand to Maryland

Eamsureya was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand. An avid traveler, it was fitting that she chose to study abroad.

Nguyen met her soon after she arrived at the University of Maryland in August 2010 to start her freshman year. He was a volunteer who helped international students adjust, but Eamsureya didn’t really need the help.

“She was always very independent,” he said.

Her friends said Eamsureya adapted well to her life in College Park. She pursued her love of math by studying accounting. She played tennis, enjoyed watching sports and made many friends. 

Eamsureya attended high school at St. Andrews International School in Thailand. Among her friends there were Prye Wongsirimana, who currently studies at the University of Hong Kong.

Despite the thousands of miles between them, Wongsirimana knew much of Eamsureya’s experience during her 11 months in Maryland.

“She said she liked to go shopping in an outlet call Georgetown. She loves the cupcakes there,” Wongsirimana said in an email.

Pim Chalinee Yipyintum, another high school friend, also heard about Eamsureya’s time in Maryland: “She said she [enjoyed] her freshman year so much,” she wrote in a note to Patch.

A Lover of China

Though born in Thailand, both of Eamsureya’s sides of her family are Chinese, her friends said. She took Chinese language classes as a child, but it was in high school when her real interest in China was piqued.

“Pat and I took history class together, and we studied about China from the end of the Manchu Dynasty period until during the Cold War,” Wongsirimana said. “That got Pat interested in Chinese history.”

But it was the pride she had in her family roots from which her love for China grew, Wongsirimana said.

According to Wongsirimana, Eamsureya’s ancestors were Chinese rice traders. She has family who works in medicine at a Chinese hospital Hua Chiew; who founded the rescue force called Por Tek Tung; and her father owns a chain of Shanghainese food restaurants, Wongsirimana said.

A Lover of Travel

“The world is a book and those who do not travel only read one page.” St. Augustine quote, Tweeted by Pat on June 7, 2011.

Eamsureya had spent time studying and visiting China, including in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Beijing. Her friends say she was going to study abroad in China this fall, and this past summer, she and Wongsirimana were going to travel to Beijing together.

They already planned and booked the flights, application fees, dormitory and trips.

“Pat and I [were] very excited to go to Beijing again. We made calls with each other almost every day to plan our trip. We were very nostalgic about China,” Wongsirimana said.

Eamsureya didn’t travel to just China. In fact, part of the reason she liked being in College Park, Wongsirimana said, was because she could easily get to New York City.

Just before the summer session started, Eamsureya spent a week in France with her parents and family friends, and she already had her 2012 spring break destination picked out. Her cousin, Thomtanut Hatayodom, who studies in London, said she was going to go there to watch the Manchester United football team play.

A Lover of Sports 

“Pat [loved] to watch football,” Wongsirimana said. In America, this is soccer. “Even though it's 3 or 4 … in the morning in Bangkok, she would wake up to watch it.”

Eamsureya also loved tennis, sometimes picking up a racquet and playing with friends in College Park.

“She was pretty good from what I hear,” Nguyen said.

She admired the professionals, especially Andy Roddick. Wongsirimana said her bedroom walls were covered with posters and news clippings about Roddick.

Last year, Eamsureya got to meet her idol in Miami and walked away with an autographed hat.

“She always [talked] about Andy Roddick all day long until friends hated him,” Wongsirimana said.

The Wimbledon championship played out in the weeks just before Eamsureya died. It’s evident from her Tweets that she was following the competition.

The last day of the tournament was July 3. She was found unresponsive in her room four days later.

Epitome of Happy

Eamsureya’s mother, Orachorn Eamsureya called the university when she hadn’t heard from her daughter for a while, University Police PIO Marc Limansky said in July.

University Police contacted the Department of Resident Life, and when a staff member went to Eamsureya’s South Campus Commons 3 apartment on July 7, she was found unresponsive in her room, Limansky said.

He said that emergency personnel unsuccessfully attempted life-saving measures, but Eamsureya was declared dead on the scene without being transported to a hospital.

The medical examiner’s preliminary report said Eamsureya died from a blood clot to the brain, caused by a stroke.

“It’s kind of shocking that someone’s life can just be taken away,” Nguyen said a few days after his friend was discovered dead.

He collaborated with 14 other mutual friends to write a 200-word eulogy.

“She was the epitome of happy, youthful vigor; vivacious and excited about the world, and about life. There was no one that did not love her for her happy demeanor,” they wrote.

Eamsureya is survived by her mother, father Arun Eamsureya and her older brother, Part Akara Eamsureya.

Her cousin, Hatayodom, said her family misses her badly.

“To me, she’s like a bright light in the family, and I’m sure she’s the light to many people in her life as well,” Hatayodom said.