Family and Friends Keep Tom Plotkin's Memory Alive

“He was just a great kid."

"He really loved India and was so excited about being there."

That’s how Elizabeth Brenner describes her son, Tom Plotkin.

Thursday marks three months to the day since the 20-year-old Graduate fell some 300 feet into the Giri Ganga River in northern India while on a trip with the National Outdoor Leadership School.

September is part of India's rainy season. Fast-moving water had swollen the rivers, including the tributary of the Ganges River into which he fell. Plotkin, a student at the University of Iowa at the time, is missing and presumed dead. An extensive search by friends accompanying him on the hike, as well as Indian authorities, has turned up no evidence of his body.

The official message has also remained unclear. Nicole Thompson—a spokeswoman for the U.S. State Department, the government agency that steps in following accidents abroad involving Americans—said the department only comments in generalities when the situation is like the one involving Plotkin. The State Department can’t even officially give out the person’s name until local officials close the case.

“Policy allows us only to say that an American citizen is missing,” Thompson said. “Because of the privacy issue, and until the Indian authorities issue a death certificate, we can’t really comment further.”

For Brenner, who lives in Minnetonka, the three months after her son’s disappearance have been “complicated, especially when there is no body.

"Some days are better than others, other days are not so good," she said.

Plotkin was always an active athlete. At Hopkins, he played both hockey and lacrosse. At Iowa, he was a member of the men’s lacrosse team.

Friends and family back home have kept his memory alive. On Nov. 26, his high school teammates organized a memorial hockey game at the . A subsequent fundraiser was held at the Hopkins VFW and a memorial service was conducted at the First Unitarian Church in Minneapolis.

Two memorials have also been established to honor Plotkin, said Victoria Brenner, Plotkin’s aunt and a St. Paul attorney. One is Feed My Starving Children. The second is the Thomas Levi Plotkin Memorial Fund, which is being administered through the Minneapolis Foundation. The specific use of that fund is still to be determined, Brenner said.

But perhaps the most moving gesture of remembrance came from Plotkin’s older brother, Joe. The 31-year-old got a tattoo of Nanda Devi, the second-highest mountain in India (25,643 feet) and a favorite of Tom’s. The inking took place at a tattoo parlor in New York City and is scheduled to be part of an upcoming segment of NY Ink, a reality show on The Learning Channel.

The image is a reflection how fond Tom Plotkin had grown of the country where he eventually disappeared.

“He had attained a real love for India,” Elizabeth Brenner said.