For most Syracuse University students, faculty and staff, alumni or community members, a walk down Marshall Street consists of certain familiarities.

There’s the familiar sales pitch of a buy-one-get-one-free deal at Shirt World, the familiar line of customers that stretches to the door of the Chipotle and, until recently, the familiar rattle of change just outside the Starbucks on the corner.

The rattle would be accompanied by a familiar voice. “Hey pretty lady,” it would say.

That voice belonged to Gertis McDowell, who died at his residence on Jan. 7 of natural causes. He was 67. McDowell was known for sitting outside the Starbucks, interacting with those passing by and asking for change. He was a fixture along Marshall Street, as commonplace as any of the storefronts that members of the SU community pass by every day.

Many members of the SU community simply walked past McDowell without saying a word, while others would say hello or smile. But those who stopped to have an extended conversation with McDowell found that he loved talking to others about their lives and making people smile.

Eric Klein, a junior accounting and finance major, first met McDowell before even becoming a student at SU. His brother, who is 10 years older, attended SU. When Klein came to visit, he’d see McDowell along Marshall Street. Klein said he first talked with McDowell as a senior in high school when he came to visit as a prospective student.

“When I got here (as a student) I walked down Marshall and he says, ‘Hey big papa,’” Klein said. “He said that to everyone but I felt like he remembered me and then he said something along the lines of ‘you decided to come to Syracuse after all.’”

Klein continued to interact with McDowell as a student, and would occasionally buy him food and join McDowell outside Starbucks. However, he said McDowell would never share much about his past, and Klein said he never really asked.

“To be honest I didn’t know his first name until I read the article that he passed away,” Klein said. “That’s something in itself that he never needed to talk about himself.”

Tariq Nevar also found that interacting with McDowell meant learning about his personality, but not necessarily his history. Nevar is an SU alumnus who began working as a barber at Campus Cuts on Marshall Street in 2012. Nevar said he met McDowell in 2008, “the same way everybody meets him,” but he began communicating with McDowell more regularly once he started working at Campus Cuts.

Nevar and the other barbers would sit outside to talk with McDowell during the summer and the group formed a bond. Campus Cuts even began selling shirts with McDowell’s face and his signature phrase, “Hey pretty lady,” written across the front. Nevar said a couple dollars from each shirt went to McDowell to help buy food, cigarettes and other items.

Nevar added that he didn’t learn much about McDowell’s history, other than that he lived in the South and McDowell, “made sure we knew how popular he was with the ladies,” Nevar said with a laugh.

Sarah Valenzuela, a junior broadcast and digital journalism and political science dual major, learned a bit more about McDowell in her time interacting with him. Valenzuela said during her freshman year and part of her sophomore year, she would bring McDowell peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on Fridays.

She said she learned that McDowell had an accident that put him in a wheelchair, that he loved food, especially collard greens and turkey on Thanksgiving, and that he loved meeting new people.

“It’s not like he just talks to students, he talks to everyone,” Valenzuela said. “He’s just one of those people who loves being with other people.”

Some passing by McDowell would react negatively to his calls of “Hey pretty lady,” but Valenzuela said that was never the case for her.

“I’m from New York City so when you get called pretty lady you think it’s cat calling, but then you get to know him and it’s just who he is, it’s just loving,” she said.

Regardless of what they learned about McDowell, Klein, Nevar and Valenzuela all said they learned from him.

“He was definitely one of the most outgoing people I’ve ever met,” Klein said.

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned from him is the importance of a smile,” Nevar said. “He really wanted nothing more than for everybody to smile.”

Said Valenzuela: “I’ll always remember him as Big Papa.”

Published on January 20, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27