Andy was a great contributor to Carnegie Mellon's student veterans and our efforts to make CMU a veteran-friendly place. He left a lasting legacy to keep us focused on student veterans who return to academia. His personality was so large, he was a great person to work with. May his memory be eternal!

I am a history professor at Andrew's alma mater, Carnegie Mellon University, in Pittsburgh. I was the director of our major when Andy applied for readmission in 2013, while he was still in Germany. I came to know him as one of the smartest and most disciplined, articulate, kind, and ambitious students I've taught in more than 30 years at major universities. I last ran into Andy when a fellow CMU voice major, Anna Vogelzang, came back to Pittsburgh for a triumphant gig at a big local venue. There he was, supporting his friend, and just as friendly and sharp as ever. I always expected that I would someday see Andy become a U.S. Senator or do some other great public service. I and many of my Carnegie Mellon colleagues are heartbroken to lose him, and we send our belated condolences to all who loved him.

Oh, Andy, 'tis the season and Josh Groban seems to be everywhere. It is hard for me to watch him because you were so much better! Your face, inflection, emotion - you were amazing! I miss your face...I miss your voice...but I don't miss your soul, because you are with me. Those who knew you and loved you know what I mean.  Sing with the angels, dear soul.

Andrew's life as a Marine.

The Life of Andrew Cobb - a slideshow of family and friends.

Kalen Hall, who was friends with Andrew in high school and college, gives his heartfelt portrayal of their relationship.

Uncle Andrew came to visit my family in Nashville. While he was there he asked me to take him to a good restaurant known for Nashville Hot chicken. I took him to my favorite spot and he wanted to order the hottest level. I told him this was not the place to see if the food was as hot as they say. He decided to go one level below the hottest. He was struggling to finish the chicken and he thank me for saving him from the hottest level. I obviously laughed at his pain.

I’ve known Andy since middle school. Although we weren’t close, I always enjoyed his presence and admired his many talents, thoughtfulness, and sense of humor. When I think back to memories shared with Andy, he’s got a smile on his face, and ready to share his energy in any way needed with those around.

His passing brings to mind that of Robin Williams; that people so full of talent and charisma, appreciated by so many, often struggle with so much. And that while we never fully recover from losses like this, they remind us that our time on earth is finite. And this notion can help remind us to share more love and compassion with ourselves and with those around us everyday.

The best of us suffered

Andrew and I worked together in Landstuhl, Germany, at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC).

LRMC is the Army-run hospital where all the casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan came on their way back to the States.

Andrew would meet the Air Force transport aircraft (essentially hospital airplanes) and physically carry the stretchers with wounded, ill, and injured Marines & Sailors from the plane to the waiting ambulances.

Then he would ride with them in the ambulance from Ramstein Air Base, over the German autobahn, and up the hill to LRMC. Their wounds and injuries ran the gamut from gunshot wounds, IED blast injuries, amputated limbs, and sometimes horrible burns. Day in and day out, Andrew carried them, smiling, encouraging, promising, and urging them with his wit and humor to recover and survive.

He would help them down from the ambulance and wheel them up to their rooms - or in some cases to the ICU. For as long as they stayed at LRMC, he checked in on them every single day, multiple times a day, to ensure they were taken care of. If they needed snacks, he got them snacks. If they needed to call home, he helped them call home. Whatever they needed, Andrew provided.

The most difficult duty, and maybe the most important of Andrew’s duties came when a Marine or Sailor's survival was in doubt. Andrew would help coordinate travel for the family to come see their loved ones in Germany. He met them at the Frankfurt airport and became their personal chaperone - helping them grieve while helping them live. Sometimes the presence of family worked miracles, and Andrew would get them on the hospital plane to return with their sons and daughters to America alive, recovering, and with the promise of a future. When things took a different turn, he consoled the families and put them on their flights home. Andrew never forgot a family, never forgot a Marine or Sailor who passed through LRMC, he was their guardian angel.

Andrew touched not just the lives of the Marines and Sailors who he cared for on his watch at LRMC, but also of their families, friends, and neighbors. I believe Andrew would want us to rejoice in his life, and to strive to prove ourselves worthy of his service.

Semper Fidelis, Sergeant Cobb, and guard the streets of Heaven well while you wait for the rest of us to join you.

Thanks for everything - I miss you brother.

Pete

PS - Say Hi to Tank.

Jesus said, “Come unto me all who are weak weary and heavy laden…gentle am I humble in heart and you shall find rest for your soul.” (Matthew 11: 28 – 30)

We are here today to respect and honor Andrew Cobb for his honorable service under our flag in the United States Marine Corps. He was one of us. Look around us at the garden of stone -all fellow patriots. Andrew’s new neighborhood.

These are dangerous and dark times. Life is challenging. It can feel like a fight day in and day out. When life does not fit the narrative we can get stuck and sometimes lost. Whether married, divorced, single, young or old -we all need help to keep moving. To close it up; to keep pushing forward; to find a purpose; to stay in the fight. Quitting won’t make things easier. We need fighting virtues: be flexible; adjust; adapt.

The Bible talks about forgiveness, trust, honor, respect, faith, hope and love. Are any of these soft skills missing among us -work on them. Hearing these words and listening to them are two different things. Ask any parent! Work on them. Don’t try to do it alone. Let this not be a place where God and others are forgotten. These are dangerous and dark times. Don’t make them godless.

Andrew, the Cobb, once said, “Be good, learn lots, have fun, do your best.”

Let us now change a day of loss to a day of hope. Let us pray. If we pray and listen God is with us:

Lord the grave markers around us tell us there is a time to be born and a time to die for all of us. Help us to treasure each day to make each remaining day count -so that they can be a blessing to those we leave behind. Forgive our shortcomings and ill temperance. Help us to listen. Help us to live strong, steadfast, abounding in faith hope love -come what may. Heal the broken hearted and soften hard hearts. We came here for Andrew -it was the right thing to do. Bless our going out.

Andrew Cobb, United States Marine Corps, front and center. We take you leave today -we must go to stay in the fight before we return. We commit your body to the ground in safe keeping with fellow patriots. Earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Rise when you hear God call you by name. He said, ‘Come I will give you rest.” He will give you a place to rest in peace. He will hold you fast. Andrew we commend you to our Maker, Father, Redeemer and Friend. Fair winds, following seas, Semper Fi. From the rising of the sun to the place where it sets we will remember you.

Delivered by Chaplain Manuel Mak

Funeral of Sergeant Andrew Cobb USMCR

National Cemetery of the Alleghenies

27 July 2022

I was the Marine Detachment commander at Landstuhl/Ramstein AFB when Andrew arrived for duty 11 years ago. While officers are supposed to be impartial with their attention to subordinates, Andrew was clearly my favorite. Maybe it was the Upstate New York college boy-Buffalo Bills fan-dry/witty sense of humor thing, but I always enjoyed working with him. I remember speaking with him during a phone screen before he came over. It wasn’t very often that I had a Corporal with Carnegie-Mellon on his summary sheet, and the fact that he said that he worked at a bookstore in Jacksonville NC for fun really caught my attention. He took is duties very seriously, but I don’t know anyone who laughed as much as Andrew. He wasn’t bothered when the other Marines would take note of his preppy attire or stack of college textbooks on his desk. His idea of tourism wasn’t so much to go to Paris or Rome and drink at a bar, but rather to ride a bike in the Belgian countryside and stop at bakery for some fresh bread and cheese and practice his French/German/Flemish. His intellectual curiosity seemingly had no boundaries. I first learned of Andrew’s death when I spoke with Pete Faerber the next day, and I’m very sorry that I’m unable to attend the Service. We would text occasionally, usually during the football season, and we did mange to connect at a German beer hall in DC a few years ago. I really expected to see his face on the front page of the Wall St Journal someday as he was just that brilliant. He was a good Marine, a great dad, and will be truly missed.

I am sending all my love to Ashley, Gwendolyn, and the rest of the family and am so incredibly sorry for your loss. Andy had the best sense of humor, was so incredibly smart, and was such a musical talent. He was a dear friend of mine in high school and I have known him and Ashley since kindergarten. I enjoyed being a part of multiple classes, ensembles and musicals with him and will hold those memories close always. We lost touch over these past few years and I am heartbroken to hear of his struggles and passing. I am blessed to have known him and hate that he has left us so soon. 

I am very sorry to hear of Andy’s passing. We were friends in high school and performed in musicals together. He was an incredible talent. He was a better person and always made me laugh. I will never forget the musicals we did together and the memories we made during those times. I spent some time with Andy after we graduated and he was still the same guy I knew and was always fun to be around. I hate that this has happened. I wish I didn’t lose touch over the last few years with him and I’m sorry I didn’t reach out to see how he was doing. My thoughts go out to his family and his friends impacted by his passing. 

I’m so heartbroken to hear of his passing. My whole family is heartbroken. I met Andy in high school during the musicals. He had such a talent for it. But not only that.. he was sooo fun & easy to hang around with. He had the BEST, most infectious laugh & did the funniest impressions of ppl. There are so many good memories, I can’t even begin. He had such a glowing personality & it shone in his face. He was the best, & I’m so sad I hadn’t seen him in years. I wish I could’ve told him how much he meant to me & my family, & how truly loved he is. 💙😞💚

Everyone always said that Andrew sounded like Josh Groban. Here Andrew sings "Gira Con Me". You be the judge!

I was fortunate to have met Andrew the last month of his life. His kind soul shined no matter how sick he was but that smile it stopped me in my tracks the first time I met him. Andrew thanked everyone for everything literally even if it was us sticking him to get blood work! He went above and beyond for others, many he didn’t even know, I hope that those lives he touched will continue his good. I pray his son knows how much he loved him and that he will learn everything about him from his Grandma.

I was one of Andrews nurses in his last time spent at the VA.  I witnessed his struggle to live after he did everything to make himself die.  It was such a conundrum.    He captured a place in my heart from the first time I talked to him.  I remember walking around the curtain, and there I saw this handsome man who was jaundiced with ascites.   I was greeted with a beautiful white toothed smile and friendly words.  I knew right away he was no ordinary veteran or alcoholic, and was intrigued to know his story.  He only gave bits and pieces, but it was an insight into a beautiful soul.  I found out he had a My Story in his chart.   There was his story, he had a purpose, a life that far exceeded anything he shared with me.  Alcoholism is a horrible disease, I am sure there were so many people who wanted to save him and couldn’t.  Several of our staff, Jannine, Nadine, Candy,  Christine, Linda and myself felt a bond with him.  He stole our hearts.  He still smiled, and could joke with us.  Andrew went to the ICU,  he still believed if God wanted him to get better, then he would.  When there was no longer anything that could be done by man, he came back to our floor for us to be there for him when he passed.  I met his beautiful mother, Gwendolyn, whom Andrew appeared at peace when he called her name and she was there for him.  Gwendolyn, my heart and thoughts will always be with you.  It is so tragic to lose 2 children in less than a year.  I hope you stay strong, Andrew would have wanted that for you.   Thank you for sharing his video of his beautiful voice.  It will live on in all of our hearts.  I know Andrew now has peace in the arms of God.  Andrew, your life will not be forgotten.✝️

It was a privilege to get to know Andy. I would often visit him in the afternoons so we had extra time to talk. Even at his most difficult moments his kindness and charisma shined through. He spoke with pride about his accomplishments in the military and in his career, and his love for his family brought tears to his eyes. He never lost his sense of humor or his consideration for others. I know many doctors and nurses who will never forget him.

Letter to underclassman, Melissa (Ferraloro) Harrison

I am so sad to learn of Andy’s passing. He was in my second grade class at Lincoln. I remember him as a vivacious and bright boy. When I saw him before he left for college, he related a story that makes me chuckle to this day. Apparently he was goofing around during a rehearsal for something and I said, “ Mr. Cobb, this is not Saturday Night Live.” His musical talent emerged when he was in high school and I enjoyed seeing him perform and was so proud of him. What a gift he had! The world is less bright without his presence. Rest in peace, dear Andrew.  

Feel fortunate to have known Andrew as a student.  Andy possessed a keen mind that probed beyond the textbook.  His questions reflected a maturity beyond his years.   I also enjoyed his sense of humor and ready laughter.  One terrific young man!  God Bless