Joseph Jabar Sr. will never forget the day he learned about the death of his good friend David Quirion, a high school classmate and fellow athlete.

It was a beautiful spring day, April 10, 1964, and Jabar, a senior at Waterville High School, was just leaving the YMCA on Temple Street downtown.

A friend approached him to say Quirion, 18, had drowned earlier that afternoon while skin-diving in China Lake. It was his first time diving and he was with two other 18 year olds who were more experienced. While they had agreed to stay in open water, Quirion paddled alone toward an ice cover and reportedly panicked when he became trapped under the ice, according to newspaper reports.

Jabar took the news with disbelief and shock. He and Quirion were just two months shy of graduation.

“It’s one of those days you remember where you were and what you were doing,” Jabar said. “As a kid you’re insulated from tragedies — some of us are. This is like the first time you come face-to-face with something that is unexplainable, I guess — why these things happen. It really had an impact on me.”

Over the next 61 years, Jabar would think of Quirion often. He was not just a friend — he was widely known and respected as a leader, loyal, trustworthy and honest. A skilled football, basketball and baseball player, Quirion also was vice president of the senior class and served as class historian. He and Jabar, the class president, were on the football team together.

Quirion grew up on Ticonic Street in the city’s North End with his mother and brother in a small apartment over a grocery store, Jabar recalled. His father was out of the picture.

“He was the only Black student in school,” Jabar said. “His mother was white and his father was Black. He was just loved by everybody. He was one of my best friends. He was my battery mate. He was a catcher and I was a pitcher. We were co-captains in basketball under Swisher Mitchell, our coach.”

Quirion’s death shook the community. Four days after the accident, more than 800 people packed Sacred Heart Church on Pleasant Street for his funeral, a large crowd of students having walked from the nearby high school to attend. Jabar was a pallbearer.

The City Council at the time signed a resolution honoring Quirion for his good citizenship and athletic excellence, calling him a gentleman, on and off the field. In 2001, the Waterville Rotary Club named a small park off Drummond Avenue in the North End for Quirion, who also was a longtime member of the Waterville Boys Club. Later, that club combined with the YMCA to become the Alfond Youth & Community Center.

Jabar, a former AYCC board member and president, is about to further honor Quirion. At noon Monday, a plaque he created will be installed outside the gymnasium on the first floor of the youth center that features photographs of Quirion from his school years.

Jabar has established the David Quirion Memorial Scholarship which will be announced Monday as well. The $500 scholarship will be given annually to a graduating Waterville senior who exemplifies qualities Quirion exhibited — athletic excellence, academic commitment, community involvement and leadership. People may contribute to the scholarship fund.

It will be a short, quiet ceremony, and one that likely will serve as some closure for Jabar and other classmates all these years later.

Before he died, Quirion had been accepted at the then-Nasson College in Springvale. Jabar would go on to become a lawyer, Superior Court judge and justice of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court.

Poring through a notebook of high school photos, newspaper clippings about Quirion’s athletic accomplishments and death, Jabar said he had intended for years to do something more to honor his friend, and the time has come.

“It’s always been something in the back of my mind,” he said. “What brought it to the forefront was David’s brother Ron Quirion died. It just kind of brought it back, and I said, I’m going to go ahead and do it.”

“The plaque will be in a nice spot, a well-traveled area. A lot of people will see it. I’m really excited about it.”

Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 37 years. Her columns appear here Sundays. She is the author of the book, “Comfort is an Old Barn,” a collection of her curated columns, published in 2023 by Islandport Press. She may be reached at [email protected]. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.