A well-known Bakersfield College student who excelled in forensics died from a brain tumor at UCLA Medical Center March 1.

Terry Cranfill, a BC student for 10 years, was 27. As a member of the forensics team, his speeches placed on the state and national level.

One of the reasons he was at BC for so long was a debilitating skin condition called icthyosis.

“He would have to drop classes near completion because of his health,” Terry Cranfill Sr. said of his son’s time at BC.

According to his father, Cranfill had been a teacher’s aide, a tutor and had been offered a job as a teacher before he became too sick to attend school.

He died of a brain tumor, not as a result of icthyosis. His “skin imperfection” caused him to generate skin at about 100 times the rate of a normal person, according to his doctor, dermatologist David Elbaum of Mercy Hospital. The illness was physically exhausting for him.

“According to Dr. Donald Mot of UCLA Hospital, when I am doing absolutely nothing except laying down, I am burning the same amount of calories as two people running around a track (and the) side effects include dermal overgrowth, hair loss, inability to sweat, and diarrhea,” said Cranfill in his humorous speech on icthyosis, which won the bronze in the 2000 Community College National Championship.

Cranfill had to deal with adversity every day, but those who were close to him say he was fearless and was a friend to everyone he met. His father said he remembers his son as a child who would say “hi” to everyone he met. His forensics teacher, Helen Acosta, said that everyone who met Cranfill liked him and that he won the “congeniality” award at a national speech competition. Like others, Acosta could not say enough about his inherent goodness.

“Terry was one of those rare people who knew how to find the best in somebody, and even at his worst he was just a good person,” said Acosta, who knew him for seven years. She couldn’t recall a time when he had not been the most outgoing person in the room.

Cranfill’s best friend recalls how his straightforward approach with people helped him meet his girlfriend.

“Terry had met this girl on the bus and told me that we had the same interests and liked the same author. It turns out that she liked Ed McCaffery (the author), but not totally, it just shows the type of person he is,” says Daniel Mooney, his best friend and a student at BC.

Cranfill’s father is accepting donations for his son’s casket. Donations can be sent to 2801 S. H St., No. 29, Bakersfield, CA 93304, or call 397-5901.