Kevin Heisinger’s life centered around one goal: He wanted to help people. And had he been given the chance to help the man who took his life in August, no one doubts that he would.

The 1998 Northwestern graduate was known by friends and family for devoting his life to helping those who couldn’t help themselves. The irony of his brutal murder was that it came at the hands of one of those very people.

The 24-year-old was beaten to death Aug. 17 in a Kalamazoo, Mich., Amtrak train station by a paranoid schizophrenic who, at the time, was not taking his prescribed medication.

The accused, 40-year-old Brian Williams of Ypsilanti, Mich., has been charged with murder and is facing a hearing in October to determine his mental competency and criminal responsibility at the time of the incident, said Jerome Bryant, captain of the criminal investigation division of the Kalamazoo Department of Safety.

“I think Kevin would want to take compassion on this individual,” said Isabel Anadon, who worked with Heisinger at Public Allies, a community-leadership program, in a 10-month apprenticeship with the Chicago branch. “I believe that he was so kind and not someone to be vindictive.”

Ashley Langer, a Weinberg junior who worked with Heisinger as a counselor with the Undergraduate Leadership Program, agreed.

“Kevin wouldn’t try to blame anyone for this,” she said. “He wouldn’t say this was society’s fault. He would see it as a problem that needed to be fixed.”

Heisinger was attacked in the men’s room of the station, Bryant said. Police were notified of the attack at 3:20 p.m.; they arrived at the station 18 seconds later and found Heisinger’s body.

Although several people reported hearing the attack, and two people entered the men’s room to find the body afterward, no report was made to station officials until well after Heisinger had died.

“People chose not to help,” said MacArthur Antigua, Heisinger’s supervisor at Public Allies. “In the spirit of Kevin, he would have found a way to get in and help.”

Heisinger was entering the University of Michigan’s graduate school for social work. His undergraduate work at NU was marked by a degree in psychological services and his work with the Undergraduate Leadership Program under Prof. Paul Arntson.

Friend and former roommate Evan Crutcher, Weinberg ’00, remembered Heisinger’s endless efforts to help fellow residents of the Cultural and Community Studies Residential College, where Heisinger continued to visit even after he graduated.

“Kevin would stay up all night talking to people,” Crutcher said. “If they got hungry, he would get them food. If anyone needed anything, he was there.”

Heisinger joined an Americorps program through the Chicago branch of Public Allies. His involvement with the program included supervising an after-school program for Riis Elementary School students on Chicago’s South Side and helping to implement a cross-cultural arts project in North Lawndale.

Friends of the Missouri native emphasized his constant willingness to help anyone in any situation.

“He was committed to everything that was good with people,” Antigua said. “That included all populations, of all people. He was a person who sought them out to help them and did so with zeal.”

Bethann Hester, Chicago director of Public Allies, emphasized Heisinger’s impact on not only the people he assisted, but also his many coworkers.

“Kevin was incredibly well-respected by his peers, and that came from his willingness to share his experiences in the name of diversity and out of his respect for diversity,” Hester said.

Public Allies has created a scholarship fund in Heisinger’s name.

“Kevin would help everyone, and that has its cost at times,” Antigua said. “It didn’t matter to Kevin what your deficiencies were, he would find a way to include you. He was relentless in finding a way to help and how to assist people.”

Plans for an October memorial service at NU are underway and a smaller service will be held for Heisinger’s closer friends at CCS at a later date, Crutcher said.

“We want it to be a large event and more of a celebration,” he said. “We want it to be upbeat and positive, because that’s the type of person Kevin was.”