LSU is mourning the death of mechanical engineering senior Justin Fields after a fatal car accident on Jan. 30 at the intersection of Burbank Drive and Ben Hur Road. He turned 22 the day of the incident.

Fields was born and raised in Baton Rouge, where he graduated from Parkview Baptist High School. Throughout high school, Fields was in the jazz band and robotics team. He played in the Tiger Marching band during his freshman year at LSU and knew how to play the saxophone, clarinet and piano.

Mechanical engineering senior Kevin Cruz was best friends with Fields since their freshman year of high school where they served on the robotics team together. Cruz remembers Fields’ selflessness, joy and energy.

“We were really brothers. He was essentially part of my day-to-day life,” Cruz said.

Fields was heavily active on the LSU campus. He served as the lead power train engineer on the LSU Tiger Racing Formula Team, an honorable leadership position. Each year, the team builds a race car to outperform other universities’ race cars in worldwide competitions.

“Justin was definitely one of the most knowledgeable people [on the team], if not the most knowledgeable,” Cruz said.

Once a person got to know Fields, they could see him blossom, Cruz said. Cruz appreciates the many memories and mini-adventures he and Fields completed over their eight-year friendship.

Biological engineering senior Carley Bajon was Fields’ and said he was good at everything, and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do.

“He was so calm with everybody,” Bajon said. “He never got mad. He was just so sweet and caring and just wanted to see everyone do well in life.”

Bajon remembers how Fields would always encourage her when she needed the motivation to finish homework assignments and class projects. She was impacted by how proud he would be of her when they studied together.

“When it comes down to him as a person, no one dislikes Justin, and he didn’t dislike anyone,” Bajon said.

Physics freshman Adrianne Bajon, Carley’s little sister, was a friend to Justin. Adrianne described how well Fields fit in with the Bajon family. Fields often attended vacations with the family, which allowed him to bond even more with them.

“LSU definitely lost one of the smartest, most driven and one of the most successful people that would come from LSU,” Adrianne said.

Adrianne described his love for space and aerospace engineering. A huge fan of SpaceX and Elon Musk, Fields’ passion fueled him toward landing an internship with a NASA contracting company in the summer of 2021.

“His main love was space,” Adrianne said. “He loved it so much. All he wanted to do was go to space.”

Adrianne bought a star and named it “Boy and Girl” to honor the relationship between her sister, Carley, and Justin. She described the star on an Instagram post as:

“Girl and Boy always together in space, just where Justin always wished he could go.”

Biological engineering senior Victoria Byrd was a friend of Fields and said he was “over the moon” when he got his NASA internship. Even with his achievements, he was never one to brag, Byrd said.

“Justin had a beautiful mind,” said Byrd. “He really had the ability to just look at a problem and know how to answer it in minutes.”

Bickering like true brother and sister, Byrd recalls the many bittersweet days when Fields stole her lunchtime snacks during high school. They fought like siblings, but looking back, she cherished the memories.

“He was a snacky person, but he’s a boy so you know how boys just always forget to bring snacks? Anytime he would see me, ‘What’s in your lunchbox?’ like every time,” Byrd said.

His funeral service was held at the Resthaven Funeral Home on Saturday.