"Genius," said Gell. "The boy was bright. The boy took AP Calculus before I knew what calculus was. Nothing academically seemed to phase him."

Shapiro had looked forward to going to Harvard after his admission last spring, an event that his father called "one of the many bright spots in what could have been two years of horror."

Ray Shapiro said his son committed himself to going to a college such as Harvard, even when events and his health repeatedly threatened to distract him. Even visited the campus.

"He spent the night in the dorms and the day in the classes, knowing that that was his last outing before the series of tests that would precede his bone marrow transplant and then his two- or three- month quarantine," Ray Shapiro said.

"Getting into Harvard," he said, "was a major commitment for him, when he could have just drifted along. He'd go in for his SATs knowing he was going into chemotherapy that afternoon."

One of the most notable aspects of yesterday's funeral service for Ray Shapiro was the reading of the transcript of two tape recordings that Even had made-one for his family and one for his friends.

"He talked to his friends about the memories they had," Zaks said, "that we were always there to support each other and that we should never set limits on ourselves.