Victor Edward Harb Jr., 22, of St. Petersburg passed away on Thursday, October 17, 2024.

Victor was a wonderful young man that we lost much too soon. He was raised by his father and was taught to be respectful and kind. He was never "sassy" and although he may not have liked it, he did what he was told to do.

When he was little, he was a "doer" meaning that whatever you were doing, he had to do it too, so when Opa mowed the lawn, he followed beside with his little bubble mower. And when I would vacuum, he would be right there with his little vacuum cleaner. He always wanted to help. He also wanted me to win whenever we played Monopoly and would try and slip me money under the table. He was such a caring child.

He had a wide variety of interest in his life. He loved sad songs and the violin music from the movie "Titanic" touched him and he wanted to learn to play, so for his birthday I got him a violin and lessons that he took for 3 years. After he got tired of this, he got a guitar complete with amps and then a keyboard, but nothing seemed to stick. Then we found Civil Air Patrol, which he loved, and he was so handsome in his unform! His dream was to go into the Marines and he felt like he was on his way. He enjoyed the guy's activities until he went up in a small plane. He was not a fan! But Civil Air Patrol days were my favorite because we would go to McDonald's after and talk for hours. I became his keeper of secrets.

He also spent a summer learning to ride horses. It was a lopsided arrangement. He got to learn to saddle the horse, ride it and cool it down. I got to learn how to muck out a stall. But he really loved the horses. He was also a talented sketch artist and took lessons for a while.

While in junior high, his teacher recommended him for the STEM program in Chicago. So, his Dad and Grandpa took him there and spent a week at Loyola University. While there he became very interested in the medical portion of the program and filed it away for the future.

He truly loved animals. So, for his 13th birthday I took him out west to visit Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, which he really loved. We also visited the Grand Canyon and all the parks, which really impressed him. It's a good thing that his dad bought some extra space for his phone because he took pictures of everything and sent them all to his dad. He was such a caring child and along with his love for his dad came his love for "Daisy", his beloved Pit Bull. She would go out in the boat with them, and they would play in the surf, but he was worried that something would happen to her, so for Christmas she got a doggie life jacket, and he was so happy.

He spent a lot of his free time with his dad. They would take the boat out fishing, go to air shows, monster trucks rallies and Daytona for the 500. In the winter they would go to Colorado for skiing and snowboarding. He liked to go off trail, so one night I get a call beginning with "Well, they just put Vic in the ambulance." He had fallen and seriously injured his knee. That was the end of snowboarding.

On October 27, 2023, he was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident and spent 2 months in ICU at Tampa General. He was so badly injured that I doubted his survival, but survive he did, and 3 months after the accident you would never know he had been hurt. While there, he was impressed with nursing staff and decided to go into that field. I told him that he had to start at the very bottom, so he enrolled in CNA school and did very well. We went to SP college and signed him up. He was just beginning the program when he was killed.

This was a caring young man who never got to fulfill his dreams because of a careless driver. Who knows what wonderful things he could have accomplished? This loss is devastating to his friends and family. It's so sad and didn't have to happen. He had just begun to live his life and now we have to live ours without him.
Written by his grandmother, Donna Hamilton.

A Celebration of Life will be held at 12:00 PM at DeGusipe Funeral Home and Crematory (R. Lee Williams Chapel) on Saturday, November 9th. Visitation will take place prior to the service from 11:00 AM until 12:00 PM.