Jake Miller and other Waianae High School students presented a basket of 1,000 folded origami cranes to the family of beloved teacher Michael Anderson.

“;I kind of thought of him as a father,”; Miller, a 14-year-old freshman, said while wiping away tears. “;I never really had one. He was kind of there for me whenever I needed to talk to somebody.”;

Hundreds filled the school's cafeteria last night at a memorial for Anderson, a 25-year-old substitute teacher who died Jan. 29 after falling nearly 200 feet during a hike in Makaha Valley.

Organizers printed 400 fliers but quickly ran out as nearly 1,000 people arrived.

Friends and students remembered him as a teacher, friend, coach, supporter and cheerleader.

Anderson became a teacher in Waianae through the Teach for America program after graduating from the University of Notre Dame in 2006.

  Waianae High School Celebrates The Life Of Math Teacher

 

Michael Anderson, 25, was hiking with a colleague in Makaha Valley, when he fell to his death.

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He completed the teaching program in two years but decided to stay in Waianae because he saw a lot more work to be done, said Jill Baldemor, executive director for Teach for America in Hawaii.

At Waianae High, Anderson started a mock trial club, which beat Punahou in 2008; a gamers' club; and an advanced-placement calculus course.

He was also a member of the Waianae Coast Neighborhood Board.

Mark Dannog, 16, a junior at the school and a member of mock trial club, said in a speech that for all the students who did not believe in themselves and did not believe that they could succeed, “;There was Mr. Anderson who changed that.”;

“;At football games, where school spirit was seldom seen or heard, there was Mr. Anderson,”; he continued.

He remembered a quote on Anderson's classroom door that students would see upon entering: “;Think like a champion today.”;

“;When you exited that classroom, you no longer thought that you were a champion,”; he said. “;You believed; you believed that you were.”;

“;It was his mission to come here to our community so that we could believe in ourselves ... and to help others succeed,”; he said. “;Whenever someone needed help with scholarships or with college, Mr. Anderson was there.”;

A slide show showed Anderson growing up in Maryland and as a teacher in Waianae—shirtless and painted in red and blue at a football game or with pie covering his face during pie day.

Anderson's parents and two younger brothers came from the mainland to attend the memorial.

“;Mike's mission was always to touch the lives of others, to improve and enrich their lives so they can do the same for others,”; his father, Nils Anderson, said. “;Now it's up to the people he touched to continue that legacy.”;

During the ceremony, lit candles filled the dark room during a vigil in tribute to Anderson's personal mission that he wrote as a senior in high school, which begins, “;In a world of darkness, I have been charged with spreading light.”;

“;He kind of got me to be a more outgoing person by helping me out and being more myself and expressing who I am,”; recalled Miller. “;He was a really great teacher, but a better friend.”;