‘Sharp and brilliant’

Mark Bevilacqua, 20, dies in motorcycle crash

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Over the past year, Mark Bevilacqua had developed a love of motorcycles. He owned more than one bike, and loved to work on them, making custom modifications to some of them.

He was on his way home from a store in Freeport on the afternoon of June 27, having paid for repairs to one of his motorcycles, when a car driven by a 71-year-old woman made a left turn on Sunrise Highway in front of him. Bevilacqua struck the car, flew off his bike and was severely injured. He died later at a hospital.

He was 20.

Bevilacqua, the son of Marty and Susan Bevilacqua, was born on Oct. 14, 1994, and grew up with his family in Rockville Centre. He graduated from South Side High School in 2012 and was attending American University in Washington, D.C., where he was majoring in communications and minoring in Spanish, and was a member of the Sigma Chi fraternity.

He was strong, funny and quick-witted, according to his friends and family members. He could be quick-tempered, his older brother, Matt, said, but it was only because he was passionate. “He could be very sardonic,” Matt said. “He was quick with a quip, and if something displeased him, he made you know about it.”

The two brothers grew up together, but became close only over the past few years. Separated by four years, they didn’t often hang out when they were growing up. But eventually that changed.

“He called me when I was in my sophomore year [of college] and he was in his sophomore year [of high school],” Matt recalled. “He suddenly became a person in my mind. He was dealing with some relationship issues. I was able to give some advice, but he was so beyond what I thought.”

As the two grew older, they grew closer. They often talked late into the night in their parents’ backyard. More often than not, the conversation was about music. “We would talk about everything imaginable,” Matt said. “He was my brother, but he was also my equal. He was someone I could grow with intellectually and emotionally.”

Mark’s life was full of accomplishments. He was a talented musician, playing piano, guitar, bass and saxophone. He also wrote and recorded music with his friends.

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