On October 19, 2010, while training with his high school cross country team, Conor Lynch was killed by a distracted, unlicensed, hit-and-run driver. He was 16 years old. The woman who killed him was 18 years old. Coincidentally, this tragedy occurred during National Teen Safe Driving Week.

Born August 19, 1994 in Los Angeles, Conor was the eldest son of Mark Lynch, partner of Cypress LLP in Los Angeles and Jeri Dye Lynch, CEO and President of Pinecrest Schools, a chain of private schools in Los Angeles and Ventura counties. Conor attended Pinecrest Schools Van Nuys from 18 months to 8th grade, and was a junior at Notre Dame High School, Sherman Oaks at the time of his passing. He is remembered by teachers and classmates as an excellent student, team player and friend. In summers past he had been a camp counselor, lifeguard and swim instructor for Pinecrest Schools where the younger children fondly remember him as “Coach Conor”. He also worked at the Sherman Oaks Little League snack bar, which has been renamed in his honor. He enjoyed working with children who looked up to him as a role model and “big brother.”

Not just a runner, Conor was a triathlete as well as an accomplished skier, surfer and basketball player. As a child, he was a Cub Scout and played AYSO soccer, club basketball, Sherman Oaks Little League baseball. He also played tackle football with the South Valley Raiders and freshman football with Notre Dame High School. He competed in the Hansen Dam Triathlon and the Pacific Triathlon. Just two days before his passing, he and a friend biked from Sherman Oaks to Santa Monica, as he often liked to do.

A creative person with unique and thoughtful ideas, Conor was never afraid to express his opinion. He loved to travel and had already seen more of the world than most people see in a lifetime. To all who knew him, Conor was an avid learner with the grades to prove it. He enjoyed learning about different cultures, geography and people and was a peer Spanish tutor in high school. He was inquisitive and articulate and had a wonderful dry sense of humor. He loved The History Channel and enjoyed arguing conspiracy theories with his brothers.

In addition to his parents Conor is survived by his younger brothers Riley and Parker who remember him as the finest and most protective big brother they could have had. He will be forever missed by his grandparents, numerous aunts, uncles and cousins. He is also remembered by the close knit “families” of Pinecrest Schools, Notre Dame High School, the Mission League of Southern California High Schools and the entire cross country running community who have all reached out to Conor’s family from all over the country.

Although Conor is gone too soon, we are comforted by the knowledge that he lived life to the absolute fullest, and that his passing has touched – and will continue to influence -thousands of people.