A Stevenson alum rose up against inhumanity, and gave his life for it.

Last month, a story about Fred Rogers – better known to anyone over age 25 as legendary PBS kids’ show host Mr. Rogers – went viral. The piece took the form of a series of 31 tweets in which writer Anthony Breznican recalls meeting Rogers as a college student in Pittsburgh. Breznican was at a time in his life where he felt hopeless and was suffering from the loss of his grandfather.

He got on an elevator one day and Mr. Rogers was there. Breznican told him, “Mr. Rogers, I don’t mean to bother you, but I wanted to say thanks.” Rogers smiled and asked, “Did you grow up as one of my neighbors?” And as they left the elevator, Rogers sensed Breznican needed an ear and motioned for him to sit. He asked Breznican what was upsetting him, then spoke of missing his own grandfather, who had died decades before. He told Breznican you never stop missing the people you love.

Breznican posted the tweets to mark the 50th anniversary of Mr. Rogers’ show. As that story spread, so did another, in which Rogers recounted advice from his mother when he was a boy feeling anxious.

“When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers – so many caring people in this world.”

On a train in Portland last week, two young women being tormented, threatened and harassed by an avowed white supremacist may not have known to look for the helpers.

But the helpers found them.

Three of them came to the aid of the two young women, trying to prevent Jeremy Joseph Christian from hurling more anti-Muslim slurs at them, or worse. Then the worst happened. Passengers Rick Best, Micah David-Cole Fletcher and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche tried to keep Christian away from the girls and Namkai-Meche implored him to get off the train. Christian pulled a knife a stabbed the men in their throats.

Best and Namkai-Meche never made it off the train. Fletcher was hospitalized in critical condition.

On the Monterey Peninsula, there’s a large group of people who will never stop missing the 23-year-old Namkai-Meche. Here he was known as “Tilly” to friends and instructors at the Stevenson School in Pebble Beach, where he was a boarding student for two years before leaving a year early to travel, then attend Reed College in Portland.

As news of his killing spread, and details of what led up to it were revealed, they say his actions – putting himself between the girls and the aggressor, and trying to reason with him in a nonviolent way – were completely in character with the kid they knew and loved.

There have been outpourings on Facebook, with some urging people to keep alive the conversation that he died in defense of others.

Stevenson history teacher and coach Justin Bates co-taught one of Tilly’s classes and says, even then, he had a gravitational force about him, drawing in a huge range of disparate friends, from the theater kids to the jocks. He was open-minded, but unafraid to challenge people on their assumptions.

“He was an amazing presence in the school. He was a leader and he was there for people,” Bates says. “He had a global perspective that extended beyond the Peninsula and the U.S. Even from a young age – freshman and sophomore year – having Tilly in your class was a joyful experience.”

He wasn’t passive about anything – about interacting with students and faculty, or with how he chose to live.

“I’ve been reflecting with other teachers, and while it’s shocking, at the same time we understand how when he found himself in that situation, he saw wrongdoing and made an effort to take it upon himself to speak up,” Bates says. “It’s not like he took violent action on that train. He said, ‘We do not accept this rhetoric and this treatment of another human being.’”

Look to the helpers. Even though there’s now two less in the world, I think there are many others who are willing.

MARY DUAN writes The Local Spin for the Weekly. Reach her at mary@mcweekly.com