You may have read recently about two brothers whose bodies were found wrapped in plastic bags and dumped in a shopping cart. One of those young men was Joseph Hooker (picture at left). He was 19. He graduated last year from DeLaSalle.

I got to know Joe very well last year.

I had been invited to participate with a DeLaSalle student in the development of grant guidelines for a discretionary fund to assist central-city groups in combating violent crime. I asked our staff what student I should invite to participate with me. I was given Joe's name.

I talked to Joe about helping me with this project. He was eager to help. He told me that "the streets were crazy", meaning that his neighborhood was troubled and had a great deal of crime.

I took Joe to a half-dozen meetings. I learned about Joe's family. His older brother had just opened a restaurant on Troost. Joe said he worked there when he wasn't in school.

Joe's father was a painter and a minister. I was surprised in one of our meetings when a participant asked Joe if he was the son of this man. Joe answered matter-of-factly that he was. The individual praised Joe's father. Joe acted like it was no big deal. But I could tell how proud Joe was of his father, and of his entire family.

That's why the only part of the newspaper story about Joe's death that made sense to me was that his body was discovered alongside that of his younger brother's body.

Joe's father died last year. Our staff have speculated that this may have precipitated a change in Joe, and that this change may have resulted in some darker developments in Joe's life. None of us know at this time what really happened. But perhaps one lesson we can take from this is the importance of role-models, especially males and fathers, in the lives of our young men.

I tried to c0nnect with Joe in the only when I knew. I found he loved baseball, as do I. I learned that he frequently played the position of a catcher, like I had when I was a teenager. I shared baseball stories with him. He was also so proud of his 1997 Mercury Sable automobile, the one that was torched and found burned out two days before his body was discovered. We talked cars.

But obviously I missed the deeper connection. I did not observe the change that must have developed around the time we were working together.

How did things go so horribly bad for him, barely one year after his graduation from DeLaSalle?

I intend to find out more about this tragic story. I feel somehow responsible. I want to make sure we involve more men as mentors to our young men at DeLaSalle. I believe I owe it to Joe.