This post was written by Hatchet staff writer Danielle Telson.

More than a dozen students and alumni gathered outside Kogan Plaza Friday afternoon to remember their optimistic “godfather,” friend and coworker Lorenzo Tinsley, a 35-year-old man who died Dec. 9 and spent the majority his time on H Street near Gelman Library.

The group sat with lit candles to share memories of Tinsley, who was homeless for about three years and came to Foggy Bottom four years ago. He suffered from seizures and stopped taking medications before his death, alumna Simone Freeman said.

She said Tinsley checked into GW Hospital the day of his death.

Freeman brought on Tinsley to work at her now shuttered H Street coffee cart Sol Café. He also spent time working at the nearby hotdog cart.

Shortly after, she said, he found housing at a converted hotel through the Georgetown Ministry Center and the Friendship House, a social service nonprofit.

“When I came to work at 6 a.m., he would be here at 5 a.m. waiting for me,” she said.

A group of Tinsley’s friends sat at the gates in front of Kogan Plaza, near Sol’s spot before it shut down in the fall of 2010, where the cart’s employees and their friends would gather to drink coffee together. They said Tinsley frequently referred to himself as the “junk food kid” and jokingly called the group the “hooky crew” – a name he drew from the idea that employees and friends were skipping class when they visited him at the cart.

“He was just always happy. Always smiling, no matter what,” senior Jenny Benson said.

Freeman said Tinsley’s soul would carry on with the group. She is opening a Sol Café in Chicago, where she lives, as an indoor coffee shop and plans to name a hot chocolate drink after Tinsley to embody his love of chocolate and his sweet demeanor.

“I can’t think of a more perfect drink for him,” Freeman said.