Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

30° Evanston, IL
Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881

The Daily Northwestern

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Through the thick and thin

When Bryan Paynter got married Feb. 8 to his longtime girlfriend, it was the culmination of a dream the 21-year-old had been planning since his freshman year of college.

Surrounded by friends and family, including his parents Bruce and Bonita, he married Jenny Vierneisel, 23, whom he had been dating for six years.

They exchanged rings in his room at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital, and the pastor asked him about his plans for the future.

He said he wanted a family, two or three kids.

Two days later, the NU senior died of cancer.

“He was courageous through everything, brave through everything,” Vierneisel said. “He never acknowledged that the cancer could beat him.”

Bryan died in the early morning hours Monday, the conclusion of a life devoted to sports, academics and his family. He would have graduated this year.

In high school Bryan played football and volleyball, reaching the state championship with the Glenbrook South volleyball team his junior year.

He played club volleyball at NU, eventually organizing tournaments as club president.

Bryan thought about NU for college early on, continuing a family tradition. His parents are both alumni. Bryan’s grandfather John Paynter stepped in to direct the university’s marching band in 1949 and stayed for almost 50 years, capping his career with the 1996 Rose Bowl victory.

Once at NU, Bryan pledged Sigma Phi Epsilon. He worked as a student assistant to the football program and became close friends with position coach Pat Fitzgerald, who went on to become the current head coach.

“He was brilliant,” his friend and sophomore-year roommate Liridon Rrushaj said. “He was quick-witted, hardworking. One of the most strong-willed people I’ve ever met.”

Bryan heard the cancer diagnosis in the winter of his freshman year – Ewing’s sarcoma, a form of bone cancer that usually develops in children and the elderly. The cancer grew in his left arm, just above the elbow.

The news did not change Bryan’s personality, Bruce said.

“He was truly determined,” he said. “He only felt bad when others were upset by his sickness. He’d look around at his visitors in the hospital and say, ‘What’s with all these red eyes?'”

After he was first diagnosed, Bryan was in such good physical condition that his doctors were able to use the highest possible dosage of chemotherapy to fight the cancer, Bruce said.

The treatments appeared to work, and Bryan continued his studies at the McCormick School of Engineering, majoring in industrial engineering and economics.

In January of 2007, the pain in his left arm returned. The doctors at the University of Chicago hospital attempted to remove the cancer with surgery on his elbow, without success.

During the summer he pursued treatment again, losing his hair due to the chemotherapy.

“He never complained,” Bruce said. “He never asked, ‘Why is this happening to me?’ His doctor pulled me aside one day and asked me if Bryan ever mentioned the pain. I said no, not a word.

“The doctor told me Bryan had been in agony for months.”

Despite his illness, Bryan continued to participate in the co-op program and take classes. It was only as his condition worsened in this fall that he had to leave school.

The cancer spread farther along his arm. At the end of 2007, his left arm was amputated.

In high school, Bryan had followed another family tradition and joined the marching band, where he met Vierneisel. She was two grades ahead of him.

“He was funny,” she said. “Not one-liner funny. He was never funny at someone else’s expense.”

After dating for a year, he and Jenny had joked about getting married.

Three years ago, they started talking about it seriously, eventually scheduling a commitment ceremony for March.

They’d talked about marriage before he was diagnosed. His disease changed nothing for the couple, Bruce said.

“She stayed with him 100 percent through all of it: the checkups, the blood transfusions,” he said. “Lesser people would have let a problem this big come between them.”

Outside of his family, no one was closer to Bryan than Vierneisel, Rrushaj said.

About two weeks ago, they began to discuss pushing up their wedding.

“They were made for each other,” Rrushaj said. “She was always there for him.”

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Northwestern University and Evanston's Only Daily News Source Since 1881
Through the thick and thin