Good Samaritan killed in auto accident Good Samaritan killed in auto accident (January 23, 2002)

**Brandon Chernick was attempting to help at the scene of an earlier accident.

By Andrea Gemmet

Almanac Staff Writer

Brandon Chernick never passed up an opportunity to help someone in need, according to the people who knew him best.

The 25-year-old San Jose State University student, who grew up in Menlo Park and graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School in 1994, was struck by a car and killed January 19, on Interstate 880 in Fremont, after stopping to try to help at the scene of an earlier car accident.

Details on the accident were unavailable from the California Highway Patrol at the Almanac's press deadline.

"It's so typical that he would have pulled over to have helped," said his father, Clifford Chernick of San Carlos.

While shocked and grieved at their son's death, his parents weren't surprised that Brandon spent his last moments acting as a good Samaritan.

"Almost from the time he was born, he wanted to help people," said his mother, Katherine Fauvre of Menlo Park. "He had a kind of naivete that was combined with a huge, compassionate heart."

When he was young, he wanted to become a firefighter, but a back injury prevented him from pursuing that dream, she said. His new dream was to have a career counseling trouble children, and he was well on his way to achieving it when he was killed.

Brandon, who lived in San Jose while attending school, was only a semester away from earning his bachelor's degree in psychology, with a minor in sociology, a real achievement for young man who had trouble concentrating in school because of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, said Mrs. Fauvre.

He found a focus for his interest in people when he worked as a part-time counselor for the Santa Clara County children's shelter last year. His own struggles with his learning disability made it easier for the children to relate to him, she said.

"That (experience) was like the highlight of his life, and that's when he decided to finish school, because he needed a degree to continue (working with kids)," said Mrs. Fauvre. "He said his goal was to touch the life of just one child, and then it would be worthwhile."

He would bring the children he counseled home to meet his family, because he wanted to prove to them that there were people the world that cared, she said.

He was assigned to work one-on-one with an autistic child who had been beaten by his father, and he was able to build up the child's trust and make him more comfortable around men, recalled Brandon's brother, Spencer Chernick, 16, of Menlo Park. Another time, Brandon was the only person at the shelter able to calm down a child who was threatening to hurt himself.

"He was the one counselor all the kids could trust," said Spencer. "He never lost his temper, and he always understood."

Brandon enjoyed an extraordinarily close relationship with his brother, in spite of the nine-year age difference, said Mr. Chernick. Brandon posted numerous photos of himself and his brother in an online photo album, and had been making plans to pick up Spencer and spend time with him the weekend he was killed, said Mrs. Fauvre.

He was on his way back from the TGI Friday restaurant in Union City, where he began work as a waiter just after Christmas, when the fatal accident occurred, his mother said. Even though he had financial support for his schooling from his father, he always had a job, working in a movie theater when he was a teenager, and later as a waiter, she said. For a people-person like Brandon, his job gave him opportunities to meet new people and spend time with his friends, she said.

"He was an outgoing, life-loving person, and he had more friends than anybody I ever knew," said Mr. Chernick.

Andrea Brouchoud, a Palo Alto resident and a close friend of Brandon's since 1991, said that he put all of his energy into anyone who was close to him.

"He cared more about other people than he cared about himself," she said.

Although he struggled with his learning disability, he found there were benefits that came with it as well, said Mrs. Fauvre. He had a brilliant statistical mind, she said, to the point where he could correct information in almanacs, particularly when it came to baseball statistics, and Spencer said his brother could recall even the smallest details about things that were important to him, like the date, time and location of his first kiss.

A memorial service for Brandon Chernick is scheduled for noon Friday, January 25, at Roller, Hapgood and Tinney funeral home, located at 900 Middlefield Road in Palo Alto. Almanac intern Norman Martello contributed to this report.