Brigham Young Robst died the way he lived — providing inspiration for others.

A student at Florida Career College, he had lived in Guilderland as a teenager and even then was battling cancer to which he succumbed on Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2011. He was 28. He died at Bayfront Hospital in St. Petersburg, Fla.

"His death has affected the entire campus," said Megan Swiridenko, a receptionist at the Clearwater campus of the Florida Career College where Mr. Robst was a student at the time of his death. He was studying to be a medical assistant technician and had finished 11 months of the 12-month program when he became too ill to carry on, said Ms. Swiridenko. Before college, he had attended Pulaski Academy High School in Pulaski, N.Y., graduating in 2002. He moved to Florida in 2005.

"He came to school every day, happy to be here," Ms. Swiridenko said. "He touched everybody at the college…He said he wanted to give back to the community."

The cancer medicine that he needed wasn't available because of a nationwide shortage, said Ms. Swiridenko. "An hour before he died," she said, "he was still smiling."

Mr. Robst was born in Newburgh, N.Y. on June 23, 1983, the son of Clarence and Rosa Santiago Robst.

He had a kidney transplant when he was a baby and had almost died 19 times, his father told The Enterprise in 1996, when Brigham was 13 years old and a student at Farnsworth Middle School. His father donated his kidney to Brigham, and said, "Most kidney transplants last only five years. He's trying to break the world's record.

"The world's record," Brigham Robst said at the time, "is held by identical twins. One sister gave her kidney to the other; their kidney lasted 20 years."

As a 13-year-old, Brigham Robst also said, "I usually just say I laugh in the face of death. So many times, I have survived…I have a positive attitude. I know my family is behind me — my father, my mother, my stepmother, my sisters."

In May of 1996, lymphoma had collapsed his left lung and squeezed his windpipe so he couldn't breathe. He was hospitalized for weeks, breathing through a tube, which, though it hurt, he never tried to yank out.

"I put it to myself bluntly…I might not survive if I pulled out the tube," he said. Without a trace of self-pity in his clear, deep eyes, he went on, "I have my religion backing me up. Every night, I hope and pray to survive the next day."

His mother is Puerto Rican with Caribbean Indian blood and his father is of Mohawk and Cherokee descent, his father said. A medicine bag brought to him in the hospital by tribal elders "definitely helped," said Brigham Robst.

"Every bone in his body has been fractured and broken through rickets," his father said in 1996. "He couldn't even open his mouth to cry." He endured the pain of spinal taps through a positive attitude and meditation, his father said.

"My Dad taught me how," said Brigham Robst. "I imagine myself in a place like a forest, and I just stay there in my mind until somebody says it's done, and then I open my eyes."

His favorite teacher at Farnsworth Middle School was music teacher Caroline Bennett. "She likes all kinds of music — African-American, Chinese…She has a great sense of humor, and she helps me out, just like the lunch ladies there. If I need someone on my side, I just call Doc Bennett."

Brigham and his father both said the Guilderland schools, which he started attending in the fifth grade, made a big difference in his life. "Other places, he'd get picked on," said his father. "He knows what it's like to be picked on for being different," said his father. "He was poked fun of at other schools…We've gone through our share of bigotry…He knows it's the person inside that counts."

"It's not how you look on the outside that matters," agreed 13-year-old Brigham Robst.

Tributes to Brigham Robst written last week for the Curlew Funeral Home in Florida show he was appreciated for his inner self. "Brigham was a dear sweet young man," wrote Tina Duesing whose daughter, Rachel, dated Mr. Robst. "His poor fragile body was not enough for this long life we all have to endure."

"Brigham has taught and suffered a lot in his life and also was the greatest teacher and mentor anybody could ever have," wrote Rachel Duesing. "I will never forget his wisdom, thoughts, and stubbornness, but most importantly, I will never forget his love and kindness."

"It was a blessing to have known him," concluded Ms. Swiridenko. "He'd say 'Good morning' to me every day…He taught me a lot of things. One of them was never to give up."

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Brigham Young Robst is survived by his mother, Rosa Santiago; his father and stepmother, Clarence and Julie Litts Robst Jr.; his sister, Alberta Robst Patterelli, and her husband, Kris; his brother, Clarence, and his wife, Annemarie Salisbury Robst; three nephews, Nicholas, Jacob, and Gavin Robst; and several aunts, uncles, and cousins.

A funeral service was held on Monday, Sept. 19, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Dunedin, Fla., where Mr. Robst was an active member, with burial in Curlew Hills Memory Gardens in Palm Harbor.