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When describing her son, former UW-Eau Claire senior Samuel Foss, Sharon Foss said he was an act of God that answered a family’s prayers.

“The name Samuel actually means ‘act of God,'” she said. “We had wanted a third child, but it didn’t seem like we were going to have one. We just kind of prayed for him and we got it . we were just thankful to have him.”

Samuel Foss died at his home Dec. 10 of Myocarditis, an inflammation of the muscular part of the heart due to an infection that usually results in chest pains, heart failure or sudden death.

Sharon Foss said her son had been sick with a virus that gave him a bad stomachache that eventually made his heartbeat irregular on Dec. 7.

“He passed away in his sleep,” she said. “It’s unusual for this to happen especially because he’s so young.”

Foss said her son always seemed to be in a good mood and described him as loyal, kind and always concerned. He was majoring in ceramics at Eau Claire.

Some people might label Samuel Foss as different because he dressed “as an artist would,” but Sharon Foss added he was a devoted and faithful friend in so many ways.

“Everybody that knew him knew he dressed a bit unusual, but he knew outward appearance was least important,” Sharon Foss said. “There are so many more things to a person than the way they dress.”

Likewise, she said his friends were extremely nice after his passing.

“I can’t explain how appreciative we are for his friends’ kindness,” she said.Senior Kayla Skolaski said that for anyone who didn’t know Sam Foss it would be a very hard to describe him.

“He had a very in-depth personality . there’s no words to explain him,” Skolaski said. “(Sam) was an amazing person who always had the right thing to say at the right time, whether it was a joke to make you laugh when feeling down or (to give you) advice.”

Professor of art and design Michael Christopherson said Samuel Foss liked to work on the edge and took pride in being “somewhat of a non-conformist.”

Christopherson worked with Foss for two years in his ceramics courses and said his student was easy to get along with and had a lot of interest in woodworking and ceramics.

“We liked to discuss a variety of topics, some related to art and some not,” he said. “He liked to work with the natural character of wood and he combined it with his own skills.”

After Samuel Foss’ death, Christopherson said he hadn’t finished a wooden desk he was working on. The desk featured a contemplation ball to toss around while solving a problem or issue. Since Samuel Foss was a fan of Harry Potter, he decided to create a wand to hold the wooden ball in place when it isn’t in use.

Although the table isn’t finished, Christopherson said he and three other students will complete it and hopefully give it to the Foss family.

“It was an easy and immediate decision (to finish the desk),” he said. “(Foss) was too far along on it and deserved to have it completed.”

Skolaski is one of the students helping to finish the desk. He said Foss was really excited to finish the project, so it only seemed right that they would complete it for him.

“(The desk) was the biggest project he had undertaken in his college career,” she said. “He wanted to come to class and work on it every day and was always receptive to our opinions on it.”

She said Foss typically didn’t ask people what they thought of his work, but the desk was definitely something special to him.

“Every day he would add new things,” Skolaski said. “When Mike said that he wanted to finish the desk, I thought it would be an awesome idea because we had already put so much of our opinions into it anyways.”

Sharon Foss said she is aware of the desk project and wonders if some of the materials he used were harkening back to his childhood.

“It’s part ceramics and part lilac bush, which is something he loved to play in when he was young,” she said. “It’d be interesting if there was a connection, but we won’t be able to know now.”

Sharon Foss said her son was eager to take as many classes as he could in order to expand his knowledge.

“He loved it (at Eau Claire) and would love to be a lifetime student,” she said. “He thought there was so much he could learn to make himself such an intelligent person.

“One of the things he had said at one time was that the only thing that should ever hold you down is gravity.”