Austin John Melville, Rochester, Mn. Born 11-02-1987 Killed 11-27-2010

by Sandy Melville
(Rochester, Mn.)

I just lost my one and only son who was my first born.
Austin Melville was the light of my life. He was only 23 yrs and 25 days old
when he was run down on the city street in downtown Rochester Mn. He was loved by many, he was quiet, unassuming, a ray of sunshine, brilliant, fun, quick witted, beautiful and had a zest for life.
Austin went with his best friend as a request
of the best friends neighbor to go downtown for a bit the friday evening after Thanksgiving. After walking over to the median to get the best friends neighbor to head home, a drunk speeding 40-50mph in a 30 zone hit my son and killed him on impact. Austin did not have a chance, he was thrown about feet by this impact and died instantly on the cold hard pavement of horrific injuries just blocks from the famed MAYO CLINIC and St.Mary's hospital.
Austin had graduated in May 2010 from Winona State University in Mass-Communications with NBS Honors and cum laude. He had a commanding voice and presence and wtih that aspired to become the VOICE of the Green Bay Packers, the Packers were greatest passion of his life.
Austin was the ultimate loyal Packer fan born and raised in Mn. He knew every aspect of that organization, statistics, history, details etc and spent 5 days every year at Packer training camp in August with his Dad. Austin had extreme interests in many things, philosophy, psychology, astro-physics, music and many other things along with a love of the Christmas season. He was a talented drummer, was teaching himself to play Banjo, and had asked for a telescope as a graduation present to further his interest in astro-physics. He had a desire to obtain a PHD in astro-physics in the future if it worked with his plan to work with the Packers. The Mn Twins had just an completed an interview with him for a position with them for their 2011 season, he was scheduled to have a second interview for that.

Along with the many ecelectic interests that totally consumed Austin's thoughts and time. He also had a wonderful girlfriend of almost 4 yrs, he and Katie got along immensly and enjoyed being together. They both had just graduated from college and were starting to plan their lives and futures together, to become engaged within months as well.

Austin's bio on his twitter account stated simply that " he had 2 arms, 2 legs and an ambition to live ! "
Austin's visitation was the largest ever experienced by the funeral home. The actual visitation was to be 3p-7p. Persons waited over 3 hours to share their condolences and stories of how wonderful he was. The visitation went from 3p to 10:45p. This speaks volumes to us of persons knowing just what a kind wonderful person he was. We received many cards, letters from persons and classmates parents stating how Austin helped them or their kids through issues. We were touched by the countless strangers notes and letters as well that he had touched in one way or another.

Our family is totally devastated with losing our only precious son Austin.
We got to the ER within minutes of him being hit to find out from the Dr.s that they were unable to revive him. We were totally unaware of how bad the accident was. Kissing your 23 yr old little boys cold forehead through tears telling him goodbye is just the most horrendous gut-wrenching nightmare a parent has to endure.
The person responsible for killing my son not only was speeding in a 30mph zone. His intoxication level was 2x the legal limit. He had prior DUI arrests, underage drinking arrest and drug probabtions. On the night of Nov. 27, 2010 this drunk hit 4 pedestrians within blocks of each other in 2 incidents, running from both accidents and killing my Austin who walked innocently in the crosswalk with friends heading to their vehicle to go home.

Austin has lost everything, his life, his hopes his dreams, his world. The pain is overwhelming and immeasurable. I am just paralyzed most of the time with the incredible pain and realization of losing my Awesome Austin. I have to be a voice for him, I have to make sure his story is heard. We need to change this idiot world of drinking and irresponsible behavior of driving DRUNK !! We need to ALL push for tougher laws for drunk driving, there should not be a sceond chance, Austin had NO chance !

Austin, I LOVE you forever........ Love MOM !