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. He was training with his high school’s cross country track team. 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 and Sherman Oaks Little League Baseball. He also played tackle football with the South Valley Raiders and freshman football at 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.

Conor attended Pinecrest Schools in 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 and they in turn looked up to him as a role model and “big brother.” 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.