The name Lucian in Latin means light.

“Light shines,” Eric Chen-Ta Li said. “Light represents guidance. It’s meaningful. We wanted our son to be that person.”

That’s how Lucian Li got his first name when he was born to Chen-Ta Li and his wife, Sarah Popdan on Nov. 1, 2003 in Lancaster.

Lucian Li went on to live up to his name, impressing coaches, teachers and fellow students during his years in Manheim Township schools with his outgoing personality, ability to put strangers at ease and athletic prowess.

“He was a bright light in a lot of people’s lives,” Manheim Township football coach and school counselor Mark Evans said.

So it’s no wonder many across Lancaster County feel the world’s a bit darker since July 18, when 19-year-old Li died as a result of injuries sustained in a Chester County car wreck caused by a wrong-way driver. Li’s death came a little more than a year after he graduated from Manheim Township High School, where he was a multi-sport athlete.

“The world got cheated out of seeing what he’d accomplish in adulthood,” Manheim Township High School teacher Lance Wagner said of Li. “He could’ve done anything.”

Lucian Li

Carter Rusnak, left, was a friend, teammate and classmate of Lucian Li.

Because of that, Evans often nudged Li, a cross country runner in the fall, to instead give football a try.

“Hey, buddy,” Evans said to Li whenever their paths crossed in the hallways.

Most of the time, Li responded with his iconic toothy grin.

“He was a goober,” Evans said. “And I mean that as a compliment.”

Goober isn’t in the dictionary, but is a slang term for goofy, and is used to describe Li in the obituary written by his mother.

“Whenever he saw someone ... even if he barely knew them, he’d go up to them and spark a conversation,” said Carter Rusnak, a friend and former teammate of Li’s.

Captain without the title

A standout high school lacrosse player in the spring, Li sustained concussions through the course of his athletic career.

It’s why his mother, an emergency room nurse, warned her son if he sustained one more concussion he would no longer be able to play lacrosse.

It’s why Li opted to forego football and run for the cross country team.

“(Li) lifted everybody,” Manheim Township cross country coach Kevin Stover said.

“He was responsible, but he was a goof, too” Tyler Stevens said.

Stevens, a distance runner at Louisiana State University, was cross country teammates with Li in high school.

“I can’t think of one moment where he was negative,” Stevens said.

Many times Li sprinted at the start of the race, getting out in front in the first 400 meters before those geared for the endurance of a 3.1-mile high school cross country race passed Li.

Legend has it Li once did cartwheels for the majority of a race — coaches and former teammates all have differing recollections on the matter. But it’s another example of Li attempting to bring levity to those around him.

“He was ... that kid that made you feel good about yourself and made you laugh,” Stover said. “He made everybody have a good day.”

The same could be said for Li with Manheim Township’s basketball program — a sport he played through his junior year.

“He was great for the morale of the entire team,” Manheim Township basketball coach Matt Johns said. “He was the one who wanted to lift somebody up.”

Lucian Li

Manheim Township alum Lucian Li played lacrosse in his freshman season at Kenyon (Ohio) College.

Li was also humble, evidenced in the spring when he encouraged his Manheim Township lacrosse teammates to vote others for team captain who wanted the distinction.

“Lucian’s teammates would still call him the real captain even though he technically didn’t hold the title,” Chen-Ta Li said.

Li began playing lacrosse in sixth grade and later became a two-time Lancaster-Lebanon League boys lacrosse first-team all-star selection at long-stick midfielder for the Manheim Township varsity squad.

He continued playing the sport at NCAA Division III Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio.

“Lucian brought a lot of effort,” Kenyon coach Doug Misarti said. “He was coachable, likable, always smiling, always a real lift for everybody. On the freezing cold days of practice he was the guy out there getting guys ready to go. As a freshman, it says a lot about him and his character.”

‘A kid who is helping others’

Along the way, teammates often asked Li if his younger sister, Calla, played sports.

“No,” Li replied. “She’s more of an artist.”

Li then pulled out his smartphone and showed his friends photos of Calla’s artwork, proud of his sister’s talents.

Li showed the same support for Calla over the last 12 months or so while he was away at college, sometimes writing his younger sister letters of encouragement.

Chen-Ta Li, who works full-time in marketing, is a native of Taiwan, where he and Popdan, a Hempfield High School alum, met on a dance floor in 1997 and later lived with their children for a number of years — the family moved back to Lancaster in 2014.

Li, who was bilingual in English and Chinese, studied biology at Kenyon and had aspirations of becoming a pediatrician and working overseas in the medical field.

Lucian Li

Lucian Li graduated from Manheim Township High School in 2022.

“He talked about maybe working for UNICEF or Doctors Without Borders,” Chen-Ta Li recalled of his son. “He shared that idea with me two months ago.”

Chen-Ta Li said the family is taking some comfort in knowing his son’s organs were donated, giving a second shot at life to others, including someone in New York who received his heart.

The motorist who caused the crash was Matthew DeAngelis, 42, of Delaware County. He died at the scene.

“I feel for his mom,” Chen-Ta Li said of DeAngelis. “We’re all parents. Nobody wants anything bad to happen to their kids. We want to offer our condolences to her.”

In the wake of Li’s death, his father created a GoFundMe with the intentions of using the money raised to create a scholarship in his son’s memory. The initial goal of the fundraiser was $21,000, and was met within a matter of hours. It surpassed $70,000 as of late this week. Donate

“To us, Lucian was always a good student but not a straight-A student,” Chen-Ta Li said.

“In this day at Manheim Township most of the kids are judged on their grades. You never get a pat on your back for being a loving, caring kid. We want to do something that will acknowledge the student on their team who might not be All-American but a kid who is helping others.”

Li’s legacy will live on in the scholarship, just as it will in the hearts and minds of others on whom he made an impact.

“For (Li) to be so public and so positive, that’s something I want to apply to my life,” Stevens said.

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